Shen Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Insect (chóng) Ming; Kangxi stroke count: 16; Page 1093, Entry 41 Pronounced ming. Jade Chapters (Yupian): A type of insect that eats the hearts of crop sprouts. Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (Shuowen): When officials are dim-witted (mingming) and break the law, this insect is born. Book of Odes (Shijing), Lesser Odes (Xiao Ya): Remove the ming and te insects, and the mao and zei pests. Commentary (Shu): Li Xun says: It refers to their treachery, which is dim and difficult to discern. Lu Ji says: The ming insect resembles the zi-fang insect but its head is not red. Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu), Duke Yin, Fifth Year: Ming insects. History of the Former Han (Qianhan), Annals of Emperor Wu: In the fifth year of the Yuanguang reign, in the eighth month, there were ming insects. See the entry for the te insect for further details. Also, jiao-ming (a tiny insect). Master Lie (Liezi), Questions of Tang: Between the river banks grows a tiny insect named jiao-ming, which flies in swarms and gathers on the eyelashes of a mosquito. Also, ming-ling. See the entry for the ling insect for further details. Textual research: Book of Odes (Shijing), Lesser Odes (Xiao Ya): Remove the ming and te insects. Commentary (Shu): Lu Ji says: The ming insect resembles the zi-fang insect. According to the original text, zi has been corrected. Master Lie (Liezi), Questions of Tang: According to the original book, this has been corrected to the Questions of Tang chapter.