Consistently with my
policy of translating allegorical names allegorically, change two occurrences
of “plasterer Ying” to “Plaster Monkey.” Ying refers to a region in Chu where,
according to which commentators you follow, either the people did a lot of
plastering and got covered with white powder in the process, or they painted
their bodies white decoratively like Marlon Brando’s minions in Apocalypse Now.
I would have named him the equivalent of “Plasterer Body Paint” if there were a
better term for it, but there appears not to be. By chance (or not), “Ying” is
also the name of a kind of monkey. Hence “Plaster Monkey” for a plasterer, on
the model of “grease monkey” for a mechanic.
VERIFY THIS:
郢，楚都也。漢書揚雄傳作● (https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&chapter=302028)
Look up:
獿
《說文》獿，㺒也Found it!The variant 獿, Cihai, lists as a type of monkey v. 3 p. 2018.