10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, stories, Tang dynasty
A skill often attributed to jesters is the capacity to improvise verse, which they could do for fun or to mock or criticize, as we’ve seen elsewhere. Here we have Jing Xinmo 鏡新磨 (Newly Polished Mirror), jester to the emperor Tang Zhuangzong 唐莊宗 (r. 923-26),...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, stories, Tang dynasty
Like many of his counterparts elsewhere, Jing Xinmo 鏡新磨 (Newly Polished Mirror) was skilled in versifying. When an allegedly six-eyed turtle was sent to the court of Tang Zhuangzong 唐莊宗 (r. 923-26) as tribute, Xinmo made up a little rhyme about it – joking that...
10th century, 7th century, 8th century, 9th century, Americas, ceramic, fooleum, Mexico, primary source
These two wonderful figurines, one of them in the form of a whistle no less, caught my eye and attention. In fact, we mustn’t be fooled – although they are described as ‘jester gods’, this is only a name given by archaeologists due to their...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Southern Tang, stories
Here a jester cracks a joke in response to a question from the emperor, not only making him laugh but also persuading him to ease excessive taxes. This isn’t the only example of Chinese jesters intervening to reduce taxes, and we will be sharing other such...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Southern Tang, stories
The ability to extemporize poems and ditties is often attributed to jesters, with some overlap also existing in Europe between jesters and those who might be termed court poets: bards, skalds, troubadours or similar. In addition, some form of musical ability was also...
10th century, bibliography, canon, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, stories, Tang dynasty
Ouyang Xiu’s 歐陽脩 (1007-72) ‘Lingguan zhuan’ 伶官傳 (Biographies of Jesters) in the New History of the Five Dynasties is a key primary source for Chinese accounts of jesters at the court of Tang Zhuangzong 後唐莊宗 (r. 923-26), with particular emphasis on...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Southern Tang, stories
The jester’s quiver of skills could include poetry, or at least verse. There is evidence of overlap between bards and jesters, and there are accounts of jesters engaged in verse-capping – finishing off someone else’s couplets with something funny or...
10th century, China, Chinese, East Asia, historical figure, primary source, quotes, stories, Tang dynasty
An early example of reductio ad absurdum approach to changing the ruler’s mind. Rather than having a head-on confrontation with unreasonable behaviour, the jester instead agrees wholeheartedly, taking the whole thing to such a logical but extreme degree that...
