Liu Ji, also known as Liu Bowen, passed the imperial exams in the late Yuan Dynasty and later joined Zhu Yuanzhang's peasant rebel army as his chief strategist. After Zhu founded the Ming Dynasty, Liu was appointed Imperial Censor-in-Chief, a role equivalent to prime minister.
Liu Ji was a renowned poet and essayist of his time, also skilled in writing fables, and authored the fable collection *Yu Li Zi*. In *Yu Li Zi*, there is a famous piece titled "The Words of the Orange Seller." In this text, the author, through the voice of the orange seller, penetratingly exposed the social ills of the era. The article reads as follows:
One summer day, while strolling by West Lake in Hangzhou, I noticed a fruit stall doing brisk business. Curious, I stepped closer and saw many people buying oranges. Each one was golden and glossy, as if freshly picked from the tree.
I secretly admired the fruit seller's skill at storing oranges—these were picked last autumn, at least half a year ago. Yet their color was so tempting that, despite the high price, I couldn't resist buying a few.
I peeled one open, only to find the pulp inside withered and dry like tattered cotton, completely inedible. So I turned back to the vendor and demanded, "Are these oranges meant for ancestral offerings or for entertaining guests? Aren't you deliberately deceiving people?"
The orange seller chuckled nonchalantly and replied, "I've made a living selling these oranges for years, and many have bought them without complaint. Yet you, sir, are dissatisfied and accuse me of deliberate deception—I find that hard to accept. But if we're talking about deception in the world, it's everywhere; why make a fuss over a few oranges? You look like an official. Tell me, among those imposing military generals, how many truly understand the art of war? Among those dignified civil officials, how many genuinely grasp the principles of governance? These ministers and generals can neither repel bandits nor relieve the people's hardships, yet they feast on delicacies, live in grand mansions, and enjoy their privileges without shame—aren't they just like my oranges, golden on the outside but rotten within?"
Heard these words from the fruit vendor, I was left speechless. Returning home, I wrote this piece, "The Words of the Orange Seller."
Later, the idiom "Gilded exterior, rotten within" came to describe something that looks beautiful on the outside but is decayed inside.
Source: Liu Ji (Ming Dynasty), *The Master of Yu*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "金玉其外，败絮其中" came to describe how something that looks beautiful on the outside but is decayed inside.