Hai Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Fish (yú) Character: Xu Kangxi strokes: 25 Page 1479, Entry 34 Pronounced xu. Shuowen Jiezi (Explanation of Graphs and Analysis of Characters): Name of a fish. Book of Odes (Shijing), Qi Odes (Qi feng): Among the fish are the bream and the xu. Commentary (Zhuan): The bream and the xu are both large fish. Annotations (Jian): The xu resembles the bream but has weak scales. Lu Ji, Commentary on Trees, Plants, Insects, and Fish (Caomu chongyu shu): The xu resembles the bream; it is thick and has a large head, and is not a particularly delicious fish. The type with a particularly large and fatty head is called lian by the people of Xuzhou, or sometimes yong. The people of Youzhou call it xiao, or sometimes huyong. Collected Rhymes (Jiyun): Sometimes written in a variant form (chang). Collected Rhymes (Jiyun): Also pronounced yu. Shi-xu, a type of fish.