Humour hits home
A paradox of the jester's method is that they could hit home all the better for using the indirect means of jokes, stories and other roundabout ways...
Memo against mockery
Chinese jesters didn't hesitate to mock the great names of Chinese thinking and religion, including Confucius. And just as jesters everywhere...
Heaven’s surname
There are several stories of Chinese jesters running punning rings around this or that sage scholar or religious master. When Emperor Gaozu of the...
Sane laughter
The humanist writer and entertainer John Heywood (c. 1497 - c. 1580) used the padding of a jester's folly to deliver his political views more...
Of plagiarizing poets
During the Tianxi reign period (1017-21) of Song Zhenzong 宋真宗 (r. 997-1022), Yang Danian, Qian Wenxi, Yan Yuanxian and Liu Ziyi all won a place at...
Arch-enemy of jesters
The 17th century Spanish writer and jurist Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa lashes out at jesters. A rare example of such strong antipathy, even at the...
The equal of all
The irrepressibly bumptious Dongfang Shuo told the emperor what he thought of scholars, in terms of brazen self-praise. Emperor Han Wudi 漢武帝 (r....
Seneca on fools
In a letter to Lucilius, Seneca comments unfavourably on his wife's fool and on fools in general. He then goes on to tell us that Harpaste became...
All of them women
There's a raft of stories of Chinese jesters taking a pot-shot at religion and its preachers, though they were scrupulously even-handed in their...
The ploughman’s fool
This hand-coloured aquatint dates from 1813 and illustrates a custom connected with Plough Stots, a form of traditional sword-dance from...
The right to speak
A salient characteristic of the jester is the right to speak out, or in any case, freely. Their licence to say whatever they feel like is widely...
Why should I start?
An actor who showed all the signs of being a jester was He Jiasheng 何家聲 (What Family Reputation). During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (r....
A capering fool
This lively 16th century tapestry includes a jester - capering or leaping - in full fool's outfit. In addition to the cap and bells, he has bells...
Scholar, jester, what’s the difference?
Ludwig Tieck's play Puss-in-Boots (1796) features a court scholar who in the king's eyes has the same status and function as the jester, as he...
Five, Six, Seven…
During the Guangxu Emperor's reign (1875-1908), the actor Liu Gansan 劉趕三 (1817-94), was acting the part of a bawd when he managed to crack a joke at...
Sketch of a fool
This watercolour was done by Vigne who travelled with a Lohani caravan between Multan and Kabul in the 1830s. Although the sketch is titled 'Fool',...
The reality of objective phenomena
A regular theme in the foolosphere has the fool besting someone supposedly wiser, smarter, holier or otherwise superior. There's a whole raft of...
Where actors step into the jester’s role
Perhaps a Chinese equivalent to the Elizabethan Richard Tarlton in being a widely loved and acclaimed comic actor and a self-appointed ad hoc court...
Gibes and lampoons
Even Nero (r. 54-68), not noted for his niceness, allowed a certain latitude to his mocking critics and these were probably mimes - actors who could...
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