I think I will put it this way: I have nothing that I want you to see - and be a victim to your twisted imagination.
In 17th century China, Qing emperors sometimes walked the markets dressed as commoners. One day, the emperor stood at a bookstall, reading quietly. A breeze turned the pages beside him.
A nearby poet saw this and joked:
“The wind can’t read, why turn the pages?”
He was later executed. History did not even record his name.
In Chinese, “wind” shares a character with “Qing”, the ruling dynasty.
In Chinese, “wind” shares a character with “Qing”, the ruling dynasty.
I was perplexed by this because it doesn’t, but it turns out the intellectual said ‘清风’ — cool breeze, which has ‘Qing’ in it, not just a same sound but the very character for the dynasty. I’m not trying to absolve the stupid act, but this context is kinda important and words were often given more weight than they should in historic China, imo.
For anyone interested, this refers to Emperor Shizong who is the Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735)
I think I will put it this way: I have nothing that I want you to see - and be a victim to your twisted imagination.
In 17th century China, Qing emperors sometimes walked the markets dressed as commoners. One day, the emperor stood at a bookstall, reading quietly. A breeze turned the pages beside him.
A nearby poet saw this and joked:
“The wind can’t read, why turn the pages?”
He was later executed. History did not even record his name.
In Chinese, “wind” shares a character with “Qing”, the ruling dynasty.
Reference: https://tinyurl.com/4ment9ud
I was perplexed by this because it doesn’t, but it turns out the intellectual said ‘清风’ — cool breeze, which has ‘Qing’ in it, not just a same sound but the very character for the dynasty. I’m not trying to absolve the stupid act, but this context is kinda important and words were often given more weight than they should in historic China, imo.
For anyone interested, this refers to Emperor Shizong who is the Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735)