During the Western Han Dynasty, the eastern market of Chang'an was filled with fortune-tellers, and among them, a man named Sima Jizhi was especially renowned.
One day, the imperial advisor Song Zhong and the scholar Jia Yi were discussing ancient sages, lamenting the decline of moral standards in their time. They sighed to each other, "How far we have fallen from the virtuous ways of old!"
Jia Yi said, "I've heard that ancient sages and worthy men, if not serving in court, work as diviners or healers among the people. Let's visit the East Market to see if we can find such a worthy man." Song Zhong replied, "I've heard that Sima Jizhi there can calculate the past and predict the future. Let's go meet him together."
As their carriage arrived at the Eastern Market, the streets were nearly empty after a fresh rain. There, Sima Jizhi sat with his disciples, discussing the movements of the sun and moon and the interplay of yin and yang. Noticing the two men's refined attire and dignified bearing, he recognized them as persons of status, so he ordered his disciples to bring chairs for them to sit, while he himself continued his discourse on the very topics he had been expounding.
Song Zhong and Jia Yi were captivated by Sima Jizhi's discourse, finding his words fresh and insightful, so they asked, "With such talent, why do you engage in such lowly work?" Sima Jizhi burst into laughter and replied, "I took you for learned men, yet your speech is so crude! Tell me, what do you consider noble?"
Song Zhong and Jia Yi said, "Officialdom is noble; who among the talented wouldn't desire high rank and generous salary? You are a capable man, yet you engage in this. Besides, divination is all about deceiving people with nonsense to swindle their money. That's why we say you are lowly and base—we truly feel ashamed for you!"
Sima Jizhi declared, "An official should serve the nation and its people—if not, then don't take the position or its salary. You think officials are noble? Look at them today: they collude, exploit each other, chase private gain, twist the law, deceive superiors and bully subordinates, feast and gamble, and crush the people. Their actions have filled the land with grievances and starving corpses. How is that different from murder without a blade or outright banditry? What makes you call such people noble or virtuous?"
Song Zhong and Jia Yi could only stare at each other in stunned silence, unable to utter a single word for a long time, while the onlookers burst into laughter, clutching their bellies.
Later, the idiom "holding one's belly with laughter" came to describe laughing extremely hard.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biographies of Diviners"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "捧腹大笑" came to describe laughing extremely hard.