Idioms from allusions

The idiom comes from the allusion of Taigong Fishing, approachable, and a daughter’s smile.

1. Taigong Fishing

At the end of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou was extravagant and cruel, and the people's life was very difficult. Minister Jiang Ziya couldn't stand King Zhou's misbehavior, so he hid by the Weishui River and lived in seclusion.

The Weihe River area is under the jurisdiction of the prince Jichang. Jichang has great ambitions and cherishes talents very much. In order to attract Ji Chang's attention, Jiang Ziya sat by the river fishing every day. His hook was straight, without bait, three feet above the water. While he was fishing, he said: "Fish, hurry up and get hooked!"

Someone kindly told him that he couldn't catch fish this way, but Jiang Ziya just smiled and said: "The fish will take the bait on its own. "People laughed at him and he ignored them.

This incident reached Ji Chang’s ears. Ji Chang thought that he might be a talented person, so he sent soldiers to invite him. When Jiang Ziya saw the soldiers, he not only ignored them, but also continued fishing, saying: "Fishing, fishing, fishing, if the fish doesn't take the bait, the shrimp will cause trouble!"

The soldiers had to go back and report. So Ji Chang sent another minister to invite him. When Jiang Ziya saw that it was a minister, he still ignored him and said: "Fishing, fishing, fishing. If the big fish doesn't take the bait, the small fish will come and cause trouble!" The minister had no choice but to go back and report.

Finally, Ji Chang prepared generous gifts and visited Jiang Ziya in person. Jiang Ziya saw that he was indeed bent on finding talented people, so he agreed to assist him. In order to show respect for him, Ji Chang named him Taigong.

Later Jiang Ziya successively assisted King Wen and King Wu, overthrew the rule of the Shang Dynasty, and established the Zhou Dynasty, the longest in Chinese history.

2. Approachable

At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Boqin, son of Duke Zhou Dan, was granted the title of Lu, and Taigong Wang (Jiang Ziya) was granted the title of Qi. Duke Zhou was still serving as regent to assist the king. Three years later, Bo Qin went to the court to report government affairs to Zhou Gong. Zhou Gong asked: "Why are you here so late?" Bo Qin said: "It takes a lot of effort to change the etiquette and customs. For example, mourning must be served for three years before it can be removed."

After the Taigong arrived, he went to report on government affairs five months later. The Duke of Zhou said, "Why did you come so quickly?" The Taigong said, "I have greatly simplified the etiquette of monarchs and ministers, and everything is simple and simple." The Taigong later heard that After hearing Bo Qin's report on government affairs, he sighed and said: "The descendants of Lu will definitely surrender to Qi in the north. If politics are not simple and easy for the people, the people will not be willing to get close to it. Only when it is easy for the people to approach the people will they surrender."

"Public people" originally refers to politics that are simple and simple. In the Tang Dynasty, in order to avoid Taizong Li Shimin's taboo, all words referring to "people" were changed to "people", and the term was changed to "approachable". With this change, the meaning changes, from referring to politics to people's attitude towards life, and sometimes also refers to the easy-to-understand style of the article.

3. A Thousand Gold Smile

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, after King You of Zhou came to the throne, he ignored government affairs, ate, drank and had fun, and was obsessed with women. In the Zhou Dynasty, there was a vassal state called Baoguo. Its king saw that the emperor was so absurd and came to persuade him. King You didn't listen at all. Instead, he imprisoned the king of Baoguo.

Hongde, the son of the king of Baoguo, was very anxious when he saw his father being imprisoned, so he discussed with his mother how to rescue him. They heard that King You liked beautiful women very much, so they spent a lot of money to buy a young and beautiful girl, named her "Bao Si", taught her palace etiquette, and then gave her to King You. King You was overjoyed and ordered the king of Bao to be released.

After Bao Si entered the palace, she was favored by King You. There was only one thing that did not go her way, that is, Bao Si had a weird temper and never smiled. King You was determined to make her smile, so he posted a notice: Whoever can make the new queen smile will be rewarded a thousand dollars.

As soon as the notice came out, some people rushed to enter the palace. Some stuck out their tongues, stared and made grimaces, and some told some ridiculous jokes, but Bao Si watched and listened, but still didn't show a smile. There was a minister under King You named Guo Shifu, who was a villain who knew how to flatter others. He came up with a bad idea called "playing with the princes with beacon fire".

It turns out that in ancient times, when encountering enemy situations, we mainly relied on beacon towers to call the police. Those beacon towers are scattered all over the vassal states, and two adjacent ones can see each other.

If the enemy was discovered somewhere during the day, they would light dried wolf dung and rely on "wolf smoke" to convey information; if it was night, they would light firewood and rely on firelight to convey information. In this way, one by one, it won't take long for the news to spread throughout the country, and the princes from all over the country will lead their troops to Kyoto and wait for dispatch.

After hearing this plan, King You was very happy and decided to give it a try. One day, the weather was fine, and King You took Bao Si to the top of the city tower. They went up to the stage and looked far away, with a panoramic view of mountains and rivers. King You ordered the beacon fire to be ignited, and suddenly the smoke burst into the sky. When the princes from far and near saw the beacon lighted, they thought that the enemy was invading, so they ordered their troops and horses to rush to Hao (hào) capital.

They rushed to the gate of Haojing City, but could not see any enemy soldiers. They only saw King You and Bao Si sitting on the tower, drinking and watching the fun. This time, Bao Si was amused. She laughed at King You for acting so rashly and at the princes for being so easily fooled. Baosi smiled, and King You was happy, and immediately gave Guo Shi's father a thousand gold reward. But the princes were so angry that they knew they had been fooled, so they cursed and led their troops back.

King You didn't care about this. In order to see Bao Si's smiling face, he played this farce many times. Soon, the Rong people came to attack Haojing. King You saw that the Rong people were really coming, so he quickly sent people to light the beacon fire and asked the princes for help. But this time, the princes still thought that the emperor was playing with the queen, so they all stayed put. Soon, Haojing was captured by the Rong. King You fled to the foot of Mount Li and was killed. Bao Si was captured by the Rong.

“A smile worth a thousand pieces of gold” describes a beautiful woman’s smile which is very rare and worth a thousand pieces of gold.