Hai Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Bird (niǎo) Character: ya Kangxi stroke count: 15 Page 1484, Entry 01 Pronounced ya. Broad Rhymes (Guangyun): Another name for the crow. Literary Expositor (Erya), Explanation of Birds: Mentions the yuasi and the biju. Commentary: These are the crow. Expanded Lexicon (Guangya): The pure black bird that feeds its parents in return is called wu. The bird with a smaller body, a white abdomen, and which does not feed its parents in return is called yawu. In ancient times, there was the Classic of Crows (Yajing) used for divination of good and bad fortune. People in the south prefer magpies and dislike crows, while people in the north are the opposite. Shi Kuang believed that the white-necked crow was inauspicious. It is also written in a variant form (ya). Pronounced ya (falling tone). Originally written as ya. Collection of Rhymes (Yunhui): According to the Discussion of Writing and Explanation of Characters (Shuowen Jiezi), ya was originally pronounced in the level tone. It is now commonly written as the variant form ya. As for ya read in the rising tone, it has become the ya of the Greater Odes (Daya) and Lesser Odes (Xiaoya).