King Xuan, the king of the State Qi in the Warring States (475 BC-221 BC), enjoyed listening to the musical performance. Besides, he loved the symphony very much, so he built a band composed of up to 300 people. The band specially performed the music for the king.
A person, name Mr. Nanguo, was unable to play the musical instrument. Now that King Xuan liked the symphony, he mixed himself in the band to make a living. During each performance, he also pretended to be playing the musical instrument, and shook his head with the musical rhythm, as if he was playing the music. Thus, he passed off in the band for many years, but surprisingly, King Xuan didn’t find this at all! After the death of King Xuan, his son became the king, and also liked listening to the musical performance. However, different from King Xuan, he didn’t like the symphony but solo. So he ordered every member of the band to perform the music for him.
This time, Mr. Nanguo was very afraid that he would be revealed — after all, cheating the king would be a crime to be punished with the general penalty. Then, he escaped in private one night.
This story comes from HanFeizi:A Col ectionofHistoricStories(VolumeOne). Now, people use this proverb to compare those who have no knowledge or are insiders but mix themselves among knowledgeable people or insiders. This proverb is also used to use describe the situation that the shoddy replace the quality, and also, some people use this proverb to express their modesty.
