Hai Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Fish (yú) Character: 鰂 Kangxi stroke count: 20 Page 1474, Entry 11 Pronounced zei Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters): Wuzei, a species of fish. Zhengzitong (Correct Character Dictionary): Also known as the ink fish. Also known as the black fish. Its appearance is like an abacus pouch, it is scaleless, with two long whiskers resembling ribbons, and eight feet beneath the belly clustered near the mouth. It keeps its beak beneath the belly and carries a sac containing ink; when it sees a person or a large fish approach, it sprays ink. It measures several feet square and has a single bone on its back that is uniquely thick by three or four tenths of an inch, pointed at both ends, white in color, and light and cellular like rice-paper plant pith; when used in medicine, it is called haibiaoqiao. It is also commonly written as a variant form (zei). Su Shi, Treatise on Fish (Yu Shuo): Among the fish of the sea, there is one known as the ink thief; sometimes it is written using the character for crucian carp. Leipian (Categorized Dictionary): Also written as a variant form (ze).