Xu Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Food (shí) 饵 Kangxi strokes: 15 Page 1419, Entry 30 Jiyun and Zhengyun pronounce this er (falling-rising tone). Yupian: Refers to food; also refers to types of cakes and pastries. Shuowen: Refers to flour cakes. Xu Kai stated: The Explaining Names (Shiming) says that steamed, crumbled cakes are called ci, which is incorrect. Anything made from steamed flour or rice scraps is called er, not ci. Xu Shen stated: Ci is a rice cake made by boiling rice until soft and pounding it, without grinding it into flour. Fen-ci is made by sprinkling bean flour over the ci. Er is made by first grinding rice into flour and then mixing it with water. The meaning of ci is to moisten; the meaning of er is something firm and white like a jade ornament. Chu Ci, Summoning the Soul (Zhaohun): Honey-drizzled fried cakes. Also, Book of Rites (Liji), Inner Chapters (Neize): Take beef, mutton, and pork, cut the meat into pieces one-third the original size, and mix with rice in a ratio of two parts rice to one part meat; combine to make er and fry them. Commentary: This is what the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli) refers to as san food. Also, Rites of Zhou, Winter Officials, Artificers Record (Kao Gong Ji), Bow Makers: Fish glue er. Commentary: The color is like that of er. Also, Book of Rites, Inner Chapters: Pounded delicacies, taking the meat of cows, sheep, elks, deer, and muntjacs, using only the tenderloin, in equal amounts to the beef, pounding it repeatedly to remove the tendons, cooking it until done, removing the connective tissue, and kneading the meat until soft. Commentary: Er refers to the tendons. Also refers to bait for fishing. Zhuangzi, External Things (Waiwu): Use fifty castrated oxen as fishing bait. Also, to secretly lure someone with profit is called er. Book of Han (Qian Hanshu), Biography of Jia Yi: Five baits and three indicators. Also, Guangyun, Jiyun, and Yunhui pronounce this er (falling tone); Zhengyun pronounces this er (falling-rising tone). The meaning is the same. Shuowen: Listed under the radical. It is a variant form, using the food radical with the sound of er, written as 饵. Textual Research: In the Book of Rites, Inner Chapters, the text should be corrected from cooking it out to fully cooking it.