benefit by mutual discussion

benefit by mutual discussion

Brainstorming is a Chinese idiom, pronounced J í s ī Gu ǎ ngy ì, which means to gather the wisdom of the masses and widely absorb useful opinions. It comes from the history of the teachers of the army and the history of joining the army of Zhuge Liang, Shu, the Three Kingdoms.

The origin of Idioms

In the book "history of teachers and military officers joining the army" written by Zhuge Liang, Shu of the Three Kingdoms, it is said that "those who join the army should gather all people's thoughts and be loyal and beneficial."

Idioms and allusions

In 223 ad, Liu Bei, the leader of Shu, passed away. Before his death, he entrusted the military affairs to Zhuge Liang, the prime minister. In order to fulfill his promise to the former master, Zhuge Liang devoted himself to assisting Liu Chan, the later master. At that time, there was a clerk in the prime minister's office named Yang Shu. He saw that Zhuge Liang had to ask himself whatever he did. He thought it was too hard, so he wanted to persuade him to change his working method. Yang told Zhuge Liang: "in dealing with military and political affairs of the country, there should be different division of labor between the superior and the subordinate. It is not necessary to deal with everything personally." Later, Yang Shu cited some famous historical examples to persuade Zhuge Liang to change his working methods, not to care about trivial matters, but to divide the work among his subordinates, so as to save time and energy and focus on national military and political affairs. Zhuge Liang was very grateful for Yang's advice and concern, but he always felt that he could not bear the previous Lord's entrustment. He felt that he had a heavy responsibility. He was not at ease if he did not handle many things himself. Later, Yang died. Zhuge Liang was very sad and cried bitterly for several days. In order to encourage subordinates to participate in political affairs, Zhuge Liang wrote the Proclamation "history of teachers and military officers joining the army" to encourage them to take the initiative to express their political opinions. He wrote in the notice: "the prime minister's office has asked everyone to participate in the discussion of state affairs in order to gather the wisdom and opinions of the public and widely listen to useful suggestions from all sides, so as to let me know how to deal with some things and the effect will be better."

Idiom usage

All the people who have heard of the extraordinary and extravagant powers want to invite them, which also means brainstorming. The third chapter of Lao Can's travels by Liu E in Qing Dynasty