Zhao Gao was a man who was hungry for power. After declaring Huhai Qin Er Shi the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty, he decided to control the entire government. The man brought a deer to a meeting. He showed that deer to the emperor and the officials, and said it was a great horse. The emperor, who regarded Zhao Gao as a teacher and therefore trusted him completely, thought it was a horse, and many officials thought so too. Some were afraid of Zhao Gao, but seeing that Qin Er Shi also regarded it as a horse, said nothing. Others agreed to its being a horse. Zhao Gao murdered the officials who remained silent or called it a deer.
Zhao Gao later killed Li Si with the method of execution that Li Si invented himself. Then Zhao Gao killed Qin Er Shi and declared Ziying emperor when Liu Bang arrived at the capital. When Xiang Yu arrived, Ziying killed Zhao Gao and surrendered, thus ending the reign of the Yings as well as Zhao's rule.
In its traditional and modern usage, the idiom 指鹿為馬 is widely used to describe a situation where a person falsely identifies a situation in order to deceive others or saying the opposite of the truth to justify an action. This is an example sentence:
如果一個污敗之人講解自己的財富和支出為老老實實，通過咬牙困難以賺來的, 有多少人會不同意; 有多少人會控訴這為指鹿為馬之虚話?
Which translates to:
If a corrupted individual tries to explain his riches and expenditures as the result of honest and gruelling difficulties, how many would disagree; how many people would call his words a deception of "calling a deer a horse"?
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