See Northern Song Dynasty • Ouyang Xiu • Song Qi "New Tang Dynasty Book • Li Yifu Biography": "Yifu looks soft and respectful, and speaks with people, and smiles (Yue) Yi, while the thief Pian language sees Northern Song Dynasty • Ouyang Xiu • Song Qi "New Tang Dynasty Book • Li Yifu Biography": "Yifu looks soft and respectful, and speaks with people, and Yi (Yue) Yi smiles, and the thief is jealous in his heart; Anyone who is resentful will be slandered, and the time is called Yifu's 'laughing knife'. It is also called 'human cat' with its softness and harm. This is the comment of the "Book of Tang" on Li Yifu.
Li Yifu was promoted to the provincial ceremony of the door because of the countermeasures when he was Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Gaozong was a member of the Zhongshu House at the time, and because of the establishment of Wu Zetian, he moved to the Zhongshu Shilang to participate in political affairs. In the second year of Xianqing, he was the Zhongshu Order, the right prime minister, and Xu Jingzong ruled in the same dynasty.
When commenting on his personality, the "Book of Tang" said: Li Yifu is docile and kind on the outside, talks with people, and smiles with a pleasant face, but his heart is insidious and vicious, and anyone who is not satisfied with him will always try to slander and frame him, and people gradually discover this kind of mask of his. Call him "Laughing Knife". And because he is good at using soft kung fu to harm people, he is nicknamed "human cat". Tang Bai Juyi has a poem: "And extinguish the fire, and rest and sharpen the knife in laughter."
"The Secret Book of War: Thirty-six Strategies" regards "hiding a knife in a smile" as the fourth of the enemy's battle plan, saying "Believe and be safe, and yin to plan; Prepare before you move, don't make changes. Rigid in the soft outside also. "Even if the enemy believes us, and we are secretly plotting and fully prepared to act, this is a strategy that hides a killing intent and softens it outside.
"Sun Tzu's March" says: "Those who resign their humility and benefit from preparation will also ,...... Those who ask for peace without an appointment will seek also. "Therefore, all enemies who pretend to be smiling and speak good words are a kind of murderous exposure.
For example, when Cao Wei was in charge of Weizhou in the Song Dynasty, he was drinking with his generals one day, and the border reconnaissance personnel reported that thousands of soldiers had defected to Western Xia, and many of the generals were terrified, but Cao Wei, who was only 19 years old, said casually that they were acting according to my orders, and you should not make a noise. As a result, Western Xia was afraid of spies, so he killed all the defectors.
Another example is that Goujian, the king of Yue, used the strategy of "ten years of life and gathering, ten years of lessons" to paralyze and defeat Wu Wangfucha, which is an example of the strategy of showing softness and concealing murderous intentions.
Now he uses "a knife in a smile" to describe duplicity, hypocrite behavior, or a metaphor to describe that although he has a good impression on the surface, he calculates others on the inside.