The origin of idioms Han Sima Qian's "Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor" idiom refers to deer, not horses. Metaphor deliberately reversed black and white. Confuse right from wrong. Modern idioms reverse right and wrong, regardless of right and wrong antonyms. Idioms are black and white. After the death of Qin Shihuang, Hu Hai, the youngest son of Qin Shihuang, succeeded to the throne and was called Qin Ershi. As the number one hero who supported Qin Ershi's coming to power, Zhao Gao was favored by Hu Hai, became prime minister and became a pivotal figure in the DPRK. Zhao Gao is ambitious and plans to usurp the throne day and night. However, he didn't know how many people the minister in the DPRK could influence and how many people opposed him. So, he thought of a way to try his prestige and find out who dared to oppose him. So one day when he went to court, he had a deer brought and presented it to Qin Ershi. In front of the ministers, he pointed to the deer and said, "This is really a good horse! I dedicate it to your majesty. " Ministers see Zhao Gao sinister smile on his face, eyes staring at you in turn, suddenly understand Zhao Gao's intention. Some honest ministers insist that it is a deer, while those who are willing to kiss up to Zhao Gao are horses according to Zhao Gao's meaning. In order to obey Zhao Gao, ministers who confuse right and wrong staged a farce of "pointing a deer at a horse". Afterwards, Zhao Gao used various means to punish those loyal ministers who did not obey him, and some even copied their doors. Later, people used "referring to a deer as a horse" to describe those situations that deliberately confuse right and wrong and reverse black and white. Source: referring to a deer as a horse