Clown, is a word we often hear, it can refer to both funny characters in acrobatic performances, as well as those who are funny or stupid, and even some *** criminals. So, where did the word clown come about? What is its historical and cultural significance?
To trace the origin of clowns, we have to start with the ancient servants. Lingren refers to the entertainers who entertained people with singing, dancing or acrobatics in ancient times, and they were usually regarded as the lower class of society and were discriminated against and despised. In "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Gai Xun", there is such a sentence: "Dong Zhuo abolished the young emperor and killed the Empress Dowager He, Xun and the book said: 'Xi Yiyin, Huo Guang, the right to make meritorious contributions, it is still chilling, the clown at the foot, why did it end?' The clown here refers to the servant, which means humble.
Later, the term "prostitution" was called "advocacy", which generally referred to entertainers who entertained people with singing, dancing or acrobatics. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Zhi, and the Biography of Qi Wang Fang" said: "Emperor Fang Chunqiu has been long, he is not close to all opportunities, he is promiscuous and petted, he is a woman of virtue, and he advocates excellence every day, and indulges in his ugliness." "The Book of Jin and Emperor Jing" quotes this article as "ugly and cruel", but the "ugly" here has the meaning of low, filthy and banter.
When the word clown appeared in Chinese history, it did not refer to the current meaning, but had a kind of meaning of petty treachery and petty evil, such as "jumping beam clown", which is a kind of ugliness of bad people. "Guangya Commentary" all said: "Ugly, New." "Itobe" said: "New, the department also." It can be solved in one sentence. The consolidation of the gloomy atmosphere in December is gradually dissolved. Therefore, it is called New. Sima Qian's "Historical Records: Funny Biography" begins with praise of the harlequin: "Isn't it great that the way of heaven is magnificent!" Conversations can also be resolved. ”
Later, with the development of opera, the word clown developed into an informal name for a character in opera after the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the second and second chapters of "Dream of Red Mansions": "Mother Jia deeply loves the one who is a little Dan and the one who is a clown." Later, after the penetration of modern Western culture, the clown and the English word joker were gradually associated together, and the meaning of the development is what we now refer to as the funny character.
The original meaning of joker was to refer to people who were funny (often in a pejorative sense) or who could tell jokes. But then the word joker was used to refer to Jester, the image drawn on the playing cards. So Joker can be said to be Jester's new name. Translating joker as clown is to take the meaning of the jester part of joker, and if other meanings of the word joker are used, how to translate it must be related to the context, and cannot be translated as clown. For example, if you are chatting with someone else, they say, "xxx is just a joker, it's not good to experiment, and it took so long to answer such a problem." The joker here means (teasing).
Joker also has a sense of villain and guilt in Western culture, which is a bit of a **. For example, in many works, movies and televisions, Joker has examples of troublemakers and even villain bosses as villains. From this point of view, the word clown and the meaning of joker are very consistent. However, in Joker, there are two meanings of "highest trump" and "wild", and the clown itself does not have it.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that the word clown has a long history and rich cultural connotation, which not only reflects the social class and values, but also reflects the joys, sorrows, good, evil, beauty and ugliness of human nature. The clown is not only a character, but also a symbol that allows us to see a different side of ourselves and the world.
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