Chen Collection, Middle Volume
Radical: Tree (mù)
Kangxi Strokes: 8
Page 516, Entry 08
Pronounced mei.
Shuowen Jiezi (Explanation of Writing and Analysis of Characters): Tree trunk, can be used as a walking stick. The character shape is composed of Tree and Strike.
Book of Odes (Shijing), Great Odes: Extending along the branches and the trunk.
Xu says: Growing out from the branches; the branching parts are called tiao, while the main trunk is called mei.
Also refers to a unit of measure (an individual).
Book of Documents (Shangshu), Counsels of the Great Yu: Divining the meritorious officials one by one. Note: Divining them individually.
Book of Han (Hanshu), Treatise on Food and Money: Two items make one peng.
Treatise on the Five Elements: Uprooting the trees within the palace, there were sixteen that were seven arm-spans or more in circumference.
Also, mei shi refers to a vague method of divination without specifying a particular matter.
Zuo Tradition (Zuo Zhuan), Year 12 of Duke Zhao: Nan Kuai used the method of mei shi to divine.
Also, a horse whip is called a mei.
Zuo Tradition (Zuo Zhuan), Year 18 of Duke Zhao: Using a horse whip to count the door leaves.
Also, xian mei, where the mei is shaped like a chopstick, held horizontally in the mouth and tied around the neck with a rope.
Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Autumn Official: The Officer of Xian Mei is in charge of prohibiting noise.
Also refers to the bell knobs (protrusions on the surface of a bell).
Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Winter Official, Artificers' Record: The bands on a bell are called zhuan, and the parts between the zhuan are called mei.
Also mei mei, describing something detailed and compact.
Book of Odes (Shijing), Praise Songs of Lu: The ancestral temples and palaces are very quiet; the architecture is solid and tightly constructed.
Also, double eaves on a building are called shuang mei.
He Yan, Rhapsody on the Jingfu Palace: The double eaves have been completed.
Also a surname.
Comprehensive Genealogy (Tongpu): There was Mei Bei in the Zhou dynasty and Mei Cheng in the Han dynasty.
Critical Examination: In Zuo Tradition, Year 11 of Duke Zhao, according to the original text, eleven has been corrected to eighteen.