In 210 BCE, Emperor Qin Shi Huang died during his fifth imperial tour. According to his will, his eldest son Fusu was to succeed him. However, Zhao Gao, the imperial carriage master (the eunuch in charge of the emperor's chariots) who accompanied the tour, and the emperor's youngest son Huhai, coerced Prime Minister Li Si into forging an imperial decree ordering Fusu to commit suicide, allowing Huhai to take the throne as Qin Er Shi.
After Qin Er Shi ascended the throne, Zhao Gao was promoted to Langzhong Ling, a high-ranking official close to the emperor. This ambitious schemer, aiming to become Chancellor, falsely accused Li Si of colluding with peasant rebels, had him imprisoned, tortured, and forced to confess to treason. Ultimately, Qin Er Shi ordered Li Si and his entire family executed.
After Li Si was executed, Zhao Gao got his wish and was promoted to Grand Chancellor by the Second Emperor of Qin, while his brother became a palace attendant. To test whether the ministers truly respected him, Zhao Gao devised a clever trick.
One day, Zhao Gao had his men lead a sika deer into the great hall. Pointing at the deer, he said solemnly to the Second Emperor of Qin, "Your Majesty, this is a fine horse I recently found, specially brought here to present to you."
When the Second Emperor of Qin saw that Zhao Gao had brought a deer but called it a horse, he couldn't help laughing and said, "The Chancellor is mistaken—this is clearly a deer, why call it a horse?" Zhao Gao, still dead serious, replied, "Your Majesty, this is a horse. How can a horse be called a deer? If you don't believe me, ask the ministers—is this a horse or a deer?"
The Second Emperor of Qin grew even more bewildered, wondering why Zhao Gao was so insistent on calling a deer a horse. So he ordered his ministers to step forward and examine it, asking, "Is it a deer or a horse?"
At first, the court officials were baffled as to why the powerful eunuch Zhao Gao pointed at a deer and called it a horse. But they quickly realized it was a cunning ploy to test their loyalty.
Some ministers who always followed him, eager to please, echoed regardless of the facts, "Ah, this is a horse, a horse!" Others who usually disapproved of Zhao Gao said, "Ah, this is a deer, a deer!" Still other ministers remained silent, waiting to see how things would unfold.
And so the farce ended. Through this "pointing at a deer and calling it a horse" incident, Zhao Gao had tested the ministers' loyalty to him. Soon after, he secretly imprisoned all those who had spoken the truth. This made the ministers fear him even more, allowing him to act with unchecked tyranny.
As Liu Bang's army drew closer to Xianyang, Zhao Gao accelerated his plot to seize the throne. One day in 207 BC, Zhao Gao sent his son-in-law and brother to surround the palace, forcing the Second Emperor of Qin to commit suicide. Zhao Gao intended to take the throne himself, but when the ministers objected, he was forced to crown the Second Emperor's nephew, Ziying, as king. Fearing that the ruthless Zhao Gao would one day kill him, Ziying devised a plan to eliminate Zhao Gao. However, Ziying's reign was brief; after only forty-six days as king of Qin, he surrendered to Liu Bang and was later executed by him.
The idiom "pointing at a deer and calling it a horse" comes from this story. Later, people often use it to describe deliberately turning black into white and confusing right with wrong.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Basic Annals of Qin Shi Huang"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "指鹿为马" came to describe deliberately turning black into white and confusing right with wrong.