Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #32 One is willing to punish; the other is willing to accept 周瑜打黄盖，一个愿打，一个愿挨
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
Table of Contents:
· The Story
· The Meaning
· Examples in Software Development
∘ Useless Methodology Training
∘ Why do these agile trainings exist?
∘ Expensive but Useless Test Automation ToolsThe Story
The Battle of Red Cliff (John woo made a film with the name in 2008) was a famous battle in Chinese history. Zhou Yu, the commander-in-chief of the South resisted the invasion of the powerful North.
Huang Gai, a well-respected general of the South, came to see Zhou Yu, and suggested attacking the army with fire.
Zhou Yu claimed excitedly, “Wow, that’s exactly the strategy that I was thinking! But we need a spy who can infiltrate into the enemy's camp and plot the strategy.”
Huang Gai said he was willing to do it. They decided to carry out the trick of Huang being flogged to win the enemy’s trust.
The next day, Zhou Yu convened a general assembly. Huang Gai purposely infuriated Zhou Yu by criticising his battle plan.
Zhou Yu was enraged and ordered to execute Huang Gai. After others’ pleading, the punishment is reduced to whipping 50 times. Huang was badly injured and passed out a few times.
Zuge Liang (widely regarded as the smartest person in Chinese history), an honourable guest of the ally, watched and did not say anything. After the event, the South’s deputy commander came to see Zuge Liang and complained: “Sir, why didn’t you say nice words to save General Huang?”.
Zuge Liang smiled and said: “Why should I? One is willing to punish; the other is willing to accept.”
Subsequently, Huang Gai escaped and joined the North. Shortly after, he was able to set fire to the North’s camp, and the South won the war.
The Meaning
A situation where one appears to punish another, but it’s just a ruse.
