Pai (or pŏ) was composed, according to the Shuo Wên, of a contraction of 自 tzŭ nose as radical, and 一 i unity. In K'ang Hsi's dictionary, however, it is regarded as composed of 一 i one and 白 pai or pŏ white as radical, though i would be an intelligible radical and pai would be a perfect phonetic. The functions of radical and phonetic are often thus arbitrarily interchanged. Pai is much used by synecdoche for all, every; e.g. 百 姓 pŏ hsing the hundred surnames, i.e. all the surnames, of which no less than 4657 have been recorded; hence the people of China.