Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake

Stir the Grass and Startle the Snake Whenever a suspicious point is discovered, investigate and verify it, and act only after the situation is fully understood. Repeated probing and reconnaissance are the means by which hidden enemies are discovered and concealed plots are uncovered. Allusion:As the name of a stratagem, “stirring the grass and startling the snake” comes from the story of Wang Lu of the Tang dynasty, recorded by Zheng Wenbao in Recent Events in Southern Tang. While serving as magistrate of Dangtu, Wang Lu took bribes and perverted the law. On one occasion he received a joint complaint from the people accusing his subordinate chief clerk of bribery. Seeing that the allegations in the petition implicated him in many ways, he wrote in panic eight characters on the petition: “Though you beat the grass, I, the snake, have already been startled.” Its original sense was: although you are accusing the chief clerk, I, the “snake,” have already been alarmed. As a military stratagem, however, its meaning is precisely the opposite: when the enemy situation is......