What does it mean to flatter a horse's leg?

"Flattery hits the horse's leg", as the saying goes, means to please others but does not please others, but instead makes people unhappy. From Chapter 6 of Zhang Xianliang's "Descendants of the River": "Many of the fallen cadres did not flatter their superiors but offended the masses."

Flattery originated from the culture of the Yuan Dynasty. There are three theories:

1. The Mongolians in the Yuan Dynasty had a habit. When two people meet with their horses, they should pat the other's horse on the butt to show respect.

2. When a good Mongolian rider encounters an aggressive horse, he will pat the horse's butt to make the horse feel comfortable, then jump on the horse and gallop away.

3. Mongolians love horses. If the horse is fat, its legs will be bulging. Therefore, when they see a horse, they always like to pat the horse’s butt and praise it. It can be seen that "flattering" is a custom and has no derogatory meaning.

However, when those who follow the trend see the powerful coming on horseback, regardless of the quality of the horse, they rush to pat the horse's ass and compliment him: "Your Majesty's good horse, Your Majesty's good horse!" It has become a synonym for fawning and flattery, with a strong derogatory connotation.