Wei Collection, Middle Volume
Radical: Feather (yǔ)
Kangxi Strokes: 17
Page 959, Entry 15
Pronounced yi (falling tone)
Shuowen Jiezi (Explanation of Simple and Compound Characters): A feathered canopy.
Guangyun (Broad Rhymes): A feathered decoration.
Annotation to the Emergency Reader (Jijiupian): The term refers to anything made of bird feathers that can provide cover. Dancers hold feathered banners to shield themselves, thus it is called yi. Another interpretation identifies it as the feathered canopy; the modern pheasant-tail fan is a descendant of this object.
Also, Discourses of the States (Zhouyu): It is to remove its hiding place and shield (yi) the person. Annotation: Yi is like a screen. Another interpretation is to extinguish.
Also, Yangzi Dialect Dictionary (Fangyan): Yi means to cover. Annotation: It refers to shielding.
Guangya (Broad Refinement): Yi means to block.
Guangyun: To hide or to shield.
Leipian (Classified Dictionary): Also means to shield.
Also, Book of Odes (Shijing), Greater Odes (Daya): Its standing dead wood and its withered tree (yi). Commentary: Standing dead trees are called zi, trees that die while still standing are called yi.
Also, Guangyun: The rain god is called Pingyi.
Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), Biography of Sima Xiangru: Summoning Pingyi. Annotation: This refers to the god of thunder.
Also, Yupian (Jade Chapters): A type of bird, resembling a phoenix.
Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing): Within the Northern Sea there is a five-colored bird; when it flies, it can cover an entire district, and it is named the yi bird. Annotation: It belongs to the phoenix category.
Qu Yuan, Encountering Sorrow (Lisao): Driving four jade qiu dragons and riding a yi bird.
Also, Pan Yue, Rhapsody on Pheasant Hunting (Shezhi Fu), Preface: Studying the matters of hunting blinds (meiyi). Annotation: A meiyi is a place of concealment used for hunting.
Also, Pronounced yi. The meaning is the same.
Also, Pronounced ye (glottal stop).
Zuo Si, Rhapsody on the Capital of Wei (Weidu Fu): The peach and plum trees shade (yi) them. The leaf-related pronunciation is ye.
Textual Research: In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, within the Northern Sea there is a five-colored bird that covers a district, named yi. According to the original text, this has been corrected from yi to yi bird.
