[Bards] jester

[angelinblackink]

Xie xie, Your Grace.  
   
  I salute your attempt where I seem to have been lacking.  I apologise for any misunderstandings of my persona thus far.  I have sent out a list of Chinese customs of etiquette to the elfsea ist and have a litle to explain the title/name switchout that is seen in any 'court jesters' of China as well as a little look at a certain legendary You.
   
   
   
   
  ------------------
   
  —DÑ (You Zhan)
   According to legend, Chinese national hero Yu Sze was the jester of Emperor Shih Huang-Ti, who oversaw the construction of the Great Wall of China. Thousands of lives were lost building the Wall, and the Emperor decided to have it painted - which would have cost even more. Yu Sze mocked the Emperor into abandoning the plancI hear this is incorrect and that he actually persuaded the Second Emperor.
  You Zhan (erroneously listed by many sites as Yu Sze) is a historical person who was known for his ability to tell jokes and at the same time communicate important ideas through those jokes. Of course, the 'You' in You Zhan is a reference to his title rather than his surname. 'You' is understood in these contexts to be a 'court jester' or a farcical servant of the court. 

Another example is a person named You Meng (who served the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period, which precedes the Qin Dynasty You Zhan served). In that respect, You Zhan and You Meng can be considered contemporaries.

NOTE: the character —D no longer stands for 'jester' in Modern Chinese, so you probably won't find it in any dictionary. —D now means "excellent" and at one time it also meant 'actor' [still means 'actor' in Japanese] 
   
  "A fool judges people by the presents they give him. "
  -Chinese Proverb
  You Xue XianXian
  Miscreant at Large

       
---------------------------------
Luggage? GPS? Comic books? 
Check out fitting  gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ansteorra.org/pipermail/bards-ansteorra.org/attachments/20070702/8dbcfd97/attachment.html