From rain to morning sickness, a character to brighten almost anything

在這個娛樂爆炸的時代, 你能想象出古人聽到鼓聲便欣喜若狂的樣子嗎?

With a movie at the box office every week and with our phones and tablets bombarded with online memes by the minute, one might be forgiven for imagining that ancient peoples would have been a bit starved for entertainment, what with not having pictures of cats "can hasing cheezburgers" beamed into their palms. However, the ancient Chinese were a righteously funny bunch, able to have a laugh and a good time with something as simple as a drum.

As the ultimate symbol for happiness and joy in Chinese, 喜 (xǐ) captures a delightful time in ancient human history when people were happy to be entertained by the simplest things. On top is 壴, an evolved pictographic depiction of a drum on a rack. On the bottom is 口, mouth, which indicates that the drummer's audience would sing or laugh. Either way, xi was used to describe drum beat-induced delight.

Besides music, romantic love brings joy to the world as well. Three thousands years ago, in Book of Songs (《詩經》Shījīng), a maiden in love described her feelings with the lines: "既見君子，我心則喜" (jì jiàn jūnzǐ, wǒ xīn zé xǐ), meaning: "Having seen my Prince Charming, my heart is delighted." Another usage example appears a few hundred years later during the time of the philosopher Mencius

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