Little Confused, Great Wisdom

Author: Yanbo / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: As the saying goes, "Dangerous places are often safe," and similarly, "Stupid methods are often effective." During the Hongwu era, Guo Decheng, one of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates, achieved his goal using a stupid method. At that time, Guo Decheng served as a Xiaojí Commander. One day, he was summoned to the palace and, as he was about to leave, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang slipped two ingots of gold into his sleeve and said, "Don't tell anyone about this." Faced with the emperor's favor, Guo Decheng respectfully thanked him and placed the gold in his boot. However, when Guo Decheng reached the palace gate, his demeanor changed dramatically. He staggered eastward and westward, appearing utterly drunk. As he neared the exit, he sat down heavily on the threshold and took off his boots—the gold inside, of course, was exposed.
The guards immediately noticed the gold hidden in Guo Decheng's boots and reported it to Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Seeing the guards' overreaction, the emperor waved his hand dismissively, saying, "That was a reward I gave him." Some criticized Guo Decheng for this, saying, "The emperor favors you, giving you gold and telling you not to tell anyone, yet you deliberately exposed it, causing a stir all over the city." To this, Guo Decheng had a clever explanation: "If you want something to remain unknown, it must be done without anyone knowing. Think about it—how could the gold stay hidden when leaving the palace, where everything is so? If others find out, they'll say I stole it from the palace. By then, even if I had a mouthful of words, I couldn't clear my name. Besides, my sister serves the emperor in the palace—how would she know if the emperor was testing me this way?"
Guo Decheng's deliberate exposure of the gold upon leaving the palace was indeed a wise move. As he said, it would have been difficult to deny later, and given Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's nature, such a test was not impossible. Guo Decheng's approach differed from the general idea of "great wisdom hidden in foolishness." He didn't just pretend to be foolish but anticipated potential trouble and took precautions in advance. P39-40