Like the courtesans of noble houses, hidden deep within locked chambers. Parrots were once written as differ…
Like the courtesans of noble houses, hidden deep within locked chambers.
Parrots were once written as different characters. Li Shizhen noted in the Compendium of Materia Medica: "The parrot mimics speech like an infant learning from its mother, hence the character derives from 'infant' and 'mother'." Historical records state that Emperor Gaozong of the Song dynasty kept over a hundred parrots in his palace. One red parrot could call out "Long live the emperor!" and became a favorite of Gaozong. When the bird died, Gaozong wrote its eulogy himself, a proper little flatterer, wasn't it?