Zi Collection, Page Position: Lower Radical: Knife (dāo) Page 146, Entry 09 According to the Tang Rhymes (Tang Yun), it is pronounced ke. According to the Collected Rhymes (Ji Yun), it is pronounced qiu, and its sound is identical to jie. The Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (Shuowen Jiezi) defines it as skillful cutting; it is sometimes also written in a variant form (zhuan). It is also interchangeable with the character qi. The Six Books Corrected (Liushu Zheng’e) notes it is pronounced qi, and it signifies a contract. The character is formed by the radical for knife, with the component for lush vegetation (feng) providing the sound. Its shape resembles the act of using a knife to carve into bamboo or wood to record matters. It is additionally written as the characters qi or xie, which are later forms added by subsequent generations.