Hai Collection, Middle Volume
Radical: Bird (niǎo)
Zhen
Kangxi strokes: 15
Page 1484, Entry 02
Tang Dynasty Rhymes (Tangyun), Collected Rhymes (Jiyun), Rhyme Treasury (Yunhui), and Correct Rhymes (Zhengyun) state: Pronounced chen (falling tone), identical in sound to chen.
Shuowen Jiezi states: A type of poisonous bird.
Jade Chapters (Yupian) states: This poisonous bird eats snakes. If one brushes its feathers through wine, the wine becomes fatal to drink.
Expanded Records (Guangya) states: The zhen bird. The male is called yunri, the female is called yinxie.
Broad Records (Guangzhi) states: The zhen bird resembles a hawk, is similar in size to an osprey, has black feathers, a long beak, and eats snakes and acorns.
Discourses of the States (Jinyu) states: Putting zhen poison into wine.
Qu Yuan, Encountering Sorrow (Lisao) states: I ordered the zhen bird to act as a matchmaker, but the zhen bird told me it would not be good.
Additionally, there are birds with the same name but different species.
Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing) states: On Yaobi Mountain there is a bird that looks like a pheasant, often eats cockroaches, and is also named zhen.
Also written in a variant form (dan).
Zuo Commentary (Zuozhuan), First Year of Duke Min states: Coveting comfort and pleasure is like drinking poisonous wine; it is not worth clinging to.
Commentary states: Dan and zhen are interchangeable.
Also, Collected Rhymes (Jiyun) states: Pronounced tan (rising tone). The meaning is the same.
Also pronounced dan (falling tone). A bird name. Sometimes written in a variant form.