Hai Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Bird (niǎo) Character: Ru Kangxi strokes: 17 Page 1489, Entry 01 Guangyun (Dictionary of Rhymes): Pronounced ru. Jiyun (Collective Rhymes), Yunhui (Collection of Rhymes), Zhengyun (Correct Rhymes): Pronounced ru. The meaning is a quail. Erya (Approaching Elegance), Explaining Birds: Ru is the mother of the dao bird. Guo commentary: It is a type of bird. People in Qingzhou call it the mother of the dao bird. Book of Rites (Liji), Monthly Ordinances: The field mouse transforms into a quail. Book of Rites (Liji), Inner Chapters: Season a quail with smartweed. Commentary: A quail is not made into soup; it is only steamed, boiled, and cut with smartweed. Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial (Yili), Ceremony of the Duke Feeding the Grand Officers: Served with pheasant, rabbit, and quail. Zhengzitong (Comprehensive Compilation of Characters): The field mouse transforms into a quail. The quail is the same as the common quail. Regarding the twelve zodiac spirits, the Zi position represents water and belongs to the rat; the Wu position represents the伏 (fú) stage and belongs to the quail fire sequence. How could this be changed? In the third month, the great celestial body (chen) emerges, and fire appears, which is why the field mouse transforms into a quail during the Chen month. In the eighth month, the celestial body hides, and in the ninth month, fire should be received. That the quail becomes a mouse in the You month is because the Chen and Si celestial bodies have hidden. The Zi and Wu positions are the extremities of yin and yang; the spirits interact to produce such transformations, and others can be inferred by analogy.