Baatpoh- The 8th Woman, or The Numbers Game

Baatpoh: a vulgar term of abuse addressed to a woman.

The Yuan dynasty classified people into ten grades: 1. officials, 2. civil officers, 2. Buddhist monks, 4. Taoist monks, 5. doctors, 6. workmen, 7. craftsmen, 8. prostitutes, 9. scholars, 10. beggars.  Obviously, you didn’t want to be referred to as a baatpoh, or prostitute.

We still admire rankings today.  Top ten lists dominate late night shows.  As a writer, I look forward to reading books The New York Times best sellers.  Recently, I saw that writers rank right above sewage plant operators on the nation’s best and worst jobs for 2012.  What does that tell you about us?

What do rankings really mean?  Jon Acuff puts his blog’s traffic in perspective by reworking the math.  And not all people value the numbers game.  Lawrence Pearce culled over 15,000 Twitter followers to save his sanity.  The numbers game may be interesting to play, but at the end of the day, they’re mere digits.    

Daaighu & Taaitaai- Respected Women
Fogei- Waiters, Those Who Bring Sustenance

Comments

  1. The 10 grades aren’t in order of importance, are they? I love to hear of other cultures, ancestry, and stories. And what a creative blurb on your FC life.

  2. They are ranked by order. Yep, scholars are below prostitutes and just above beggars. Good thing I didn’t live back then.

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