Xu Collection, Upper Volume Radical: Metal (jīn) Character: Qiang Kangxi Strokes: 20 Page 1321, Entry 16 Pronounced qiǎng (rising tone). To use ropes to string coins together in a series. As written in the Rhapsody on the Capital of Shu (Shudu Fu) by Zuo Si: Storing vast amounts of qiang. Annotation: Qiang is the rope used to string coins. According to the Collection of Correct Characters (Zhengzitong): White qiang is a variant name for silver. The Book of Han (Hanshu), Treatise on Food and Money, records that in a city of ten thousand households, there is a storage of ten million in silver. The characters qiǎng (for swaddling cloth) and qiǎng (for coin string) are pronounced the same but carry different meanings. A string of coins is called qiang, whereas the act of using a rope to string coins is called qiang (swaddling). In the Comprehensive Dictionary of Characters (Zihui), under the Radical: Silk (mì), the character qiǎng (swaddling) is defined as a string of coins, citing the Correct Alterations (Zheng'e); this is incorrect. It further states that one uses qiang to string coins, which would imply using a coin string to string coins. The Collection of Rhymes (Yunhui) states that qiang is commonly written as the character for swaddling cloth, which is also incorrect.