• PugJesus@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    58·
    11 days ago

    This underlines another facet of the jester’s truth-imparting function. He might be the only one capable of breaking bad news to the king. When Edward III of England (r. 1327-77) routed the French army nobody dared tell the king, Philippe VI (r. 1328-50), until the jester took it upon himself. He went to the king and repeatedly shouted, “The English cowards! The lily-livered English!” The king asked him why he was saying this, and he answered, “Because they don’t even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French!" The king realized he had lost the battle.

    After the quelling of the An Lushan rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong was returning from exile. There was a camel loaded with his expensive trinkets, and the emperor noticed its bells tinkling. He commented to In Full Streamer that they made a sound like a human voice. The jester took the opportunity to comment on the way the country had been run, com- bining a name for the emperor (Sanlang) with “dissolute” or “sloppy” (langdang) to make an onomatopoeic imitation of the bells: "They sound like someone saying 'san lang lang dang, san lang lang dang!””. The emperor laughed and felt ashamed.

    During the Chongning reign-period (1102 – 6) another skit exposed the inconvenience of the new high-value coin minted in 1103. Cai Yuanzhang proposed that it be devalued by 10 percent, although among the people this was not considered sufficient. At a palace banquet a jester played the part of a wine seller. Someone gave him one of the new big coins, drank a cup of wine, and asked for the change. The vendor said that he had just come out and did not have enough small change (the coins that were in the process of being called in), although the customer was welcome to keep drinking wine in order to have his money’s worth:

    After he had drunk five or six cups in a row, he rubbed his stomach and said, “Just think what a difference it would make if the prime minister debased the coinage a hundredfold!” The Emperor was moved by this, and the law was changed.