Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #23 Calling A Stag A Horse (指鹿为马)
Deliberately confounding right and wrong
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
A True Story
～200BC, from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian.
In Qin dynasty, there was a powerful and evil counsellor named Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao wanted to rebel, but he didn’t know how many people in the court would stand by his side. So he worked out a way to test the officials.
He presented a deer as a tribute to the emperor in front of the royal court and said that it was a swift horse. The emperor did not accept his statement and said, “This is obviously a deer.”
Zhao Gao turned to the court and asked, “Is this a deer or a horse?” In the court, those who didn’t dare to go against Zhao Gao agreed with him and said that it was a horse. Those who dared to go against Zhao Gao said that it was a deer.
Zhao Gao singled out the officials who didn’t agree with him and persecuted them. There were only officials who supported him remained on the court. He solidified his power in this way.
