Generally speaking, human nature likes frankness and evil cleverness. Without cleverness and contingency, ambitious people will never achieve their goals and achieve great things. In particular, his environment is not satisfactory, so it is more important to be resourceful and not disgusting. Therefore, there are all kinds of ways to be human in the world, such as setting an eagle to sleep like a tiger, hiding it cleverly and using it wisely.
Li Ji was an important official in the early Tang Dynasty. He was originally a subordinate of Shimi, and he joined the Lord of Tang Yuan and his son. At this time, the general trend of the world will be clear. Li Ji knew that only by gaining the absolute trust of Tang Gaozu and his son could there be a future, so he sent someone to Guanzhong to present an atlas of the land and population of the counties occupied by Shi Biao, saying that since Shi Biao had made up his mind to surrender, the land and population we occupied should surrender with the master, otherwise it would be immoral to sacrifice themselves.
Tang Gaozu was deeply moved by this, thinking that since Li Ji can be so loyal to his master, he must be a loyal minister. After Li Ji returned to the Tang Dynasty, he was quickly reused by Li Yuan. However, after Shi Biao surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, he turned against the Tang Dynasty and was "punished" before he finished it. Arguably, at this time, it is too late for ordinary people to avoid suspicion, but Li Ji openly wrote to ask him to accept and bury Shimi's body-only "openness" can add color to his "integrity", and if he is secretive, it may be counterproductive. "Take the soil, and the old envoys were buried in Shan Zhinan, Li. The grave is seven meters high and the battle is scattered. " This is purely for the living. On the surface, this seems to hinder the face of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, which is a kind of loyalty of Li Ji. In fact, Li Ji had long expected that this move would have the same magical effect as the previous donation of land and population books. Sure enough, "the righteous in the ruling and opposition" publicly recommended him as a gentleman who endured humiliation and burden. Since then, Li Ji has been highly valued by the imperial court, and his kindness to III is as heavy as a mountain.
Li Ji's psychological effect of "negative gains positive" caters to the psychology that most people like to observe from the side. Because generally speaking, most people don't like the sweet words directly expressed by others, and it is easier to believe the quality shown when they get along with others. It seems straightforward, but in fact it is of great significance, and it is a model of "hiding cleverness over stupidity" to achieve great things. There is an intriguing poem by Li Bai, which is called "A great sage and a small tiger become stupid and unpredictable, and it was quite like an ordinary person in those days", which tells another way to be a man. This means that in some special occasions, people should have unpredictable stretching, bending and changing minds, and they can act calmly here.
At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the strategy of "building a high wall, accumulating grain and slowly claiming the title of king" in order to avoid becoming a target of public criticism because of the combination of heroes, and won the time and strength to conquer them one by one, and finally annexed the heroes and became an ancestor of Ming Dynasty.