Trickster turn passed it on to Odysseus. In Slavic folktales, the trickster and the culture hero are often combined. Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In Norse mythology the mischief-maker is Loki, who is also a shape shifter. Loki also exhibits gender variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. He becomes a mare who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir. British scholar Evan Brown suggested that Jacob in the Bible has many of the characteristics of the trickster:The tricks Jacob plays on his twin brother Esau, his father Isaac and his father-in-law Laban are immoral by
Eight-legged essay are "breaking open the topic (破题)", "receiving the topic (承题)", "beginning discussion (起讲)", "initial leg (起股)", "middle leg (中股)“, "later leg (后股)", "final leg (束股), "conclusion (大结)." The eight-legged essay format was invented in the Song Dynasty, by reformer and poet Wang Anshi (1021 – 1086), in the eleventh century. During the Song Dynasty, due to the invention of the printing press and the emperors' wish to recruit more men of talent, there was a huge boost in education and a consequent increase in the number of people taking the civil service exam. Additionally, there was a shift from a