HE DIDN'T LISTEN!

Sometimes, while browsing through the Chinese dictionary after a passage in a text that proved baffling, one runs across a word of limited usefulness in the modern era. It was a different world back then, with its own strange beauty, and perhaps neurotic attention to certain details which might rewardingly be brought back to life.

聝 ('gwik'): To sever the left ears of those slain in battle.

I can imagine any number of happy circumstances where this might prove useful.
Why the left ear? I do not know. That's the odd part.
He won't need either of them.


I'm probably going to spend all day wondering.



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