Hai Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Fish (yú) Character: Yan Kangxi stroke count: 20 Page 1474, Entry 28 Guangyun (Broad Rhymes), Yunhui (Collection of Rhymes), Zhengyun (Correct Rhymes): Pronounced yan (third tone). Jiyun (Collection of Rhymes): Pronounced yan (third tone). Erya (Approaching Elegance), Interpretation of Fish: Yan. Commentary: Nowadays, the yan is a fish with a white forehead. Book of Odes (Shijing), Minor Odes: Fish caught in the wicker basket include the yan and the carp. Zhengzitong (Guide to Correct Characters): One theory states that the yan has a round, white-headed body and prefers to lie on its back with its belly flat against the ground, hence the name. Note that in the Shuowen (Explaining Graphs), the original character was written as follows. It is the tuō. The tuō is a type of catfish. The Mao commentary on the Book of Odes (Shijing), Minor Odes, states: The yan is a catfish. The Liushugu (Foundations of the Six Writings) states: The Erya lists the carp, the sturgeon, the yan, the catfish, the shark, and the tuō, naming six distinct creatures. Readers often mistakenly use sturgeon to explain carp, catfish to explain yan, and tuō to explain shark. Master Mao and the Shuowen both fall into this error, defining the yan as a catfish. The Shuowen also incorrectly defines the tuō as a catfish. This is entirely incorrect.