Chapter 43 Seventh and eighth technique: the advantages and disadvantages of homonyms

In our daily conversations, many words are used under different conditions and often have different meanings, and some are even completely opposite. This is the phenomenon of homonyms.It brings us a lot of trouble, but also a lot of convenience.Clever speaking of homologous meanings can make the listener more attractive than blunt speaking. During the Second World War, the British Air Force was always on high alert due to the frequent German air raids on London. On a foggy day, a plane of unknown origin was suddenly spotted over London. British fighter jets immediately took off to meet it. When they flew towards the opponent, they discovered that it was a civil aviation plane from a neutral country.

The British fighters reported the situation to ground command, requesting instructions.Ground Command replied: Leave it alone. As a result, the British fighter jets fired a burst of artillery and knocked down the civilian aircraft.Later, Britain paid a huge amount of compensation for this.Both the British fighter jets and the ground command have an inescapable responsibility. First of all, the ground command should not answer the fighter's request for instructions with such ambiguous words as leave it alone.This can be understood as not interfering with it and letting it fly, or it can be understood as not caring what kind of plane it is, just shoot it down and talk about it.

The fighter's responsibility is to hear such an order that can be interpreted completely to the contrary, and should ask for instructions again before taking action.That way you won't make a big mistake. It can be seen that leaving it alone is a kind of synonymous speech. When encountering this kind of speech, you must handle it carefully and don't act recklessly. The story of Cao Cao killing Lu Boshe's family by mistake described in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is also very useful for reference. Cao Cao failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo, so he and Chen Gong went to the home of Lu Boshe, Cao's father's righteous brother, for accommodation.Lu Boshe received him warmly, and went to Xigu Wine in Shangcun.

Cao Cao sat for a while, and suddenly heard the sound of sharpening knives in the backyard, so he and Chen Gong approached the backyard on tiptoe, and entered the backyard, only to hear someone say: Bind up and kill! Cao Cao said to Chen Gong: If we don't strike first, we're going to die! As he spoke, he and Chen Gong drew their swords and rushed over, killing everyone they saw.Searching the kitchen, they saw a pig tied up for slaughter. As a result, a misunderstanding was caused. Although this story reflects that Cao Cao was overly suspicious, the ambiguous words of tying them up and killing them also played a big role in promoting Cao Cao's murder.This shows that words with the same meaning must be used with caution.

Of course, there are also examples of making good use of homonyms and producing good results. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, Wang Lun, a nobleman in Jingchuan, wanted to invite the great poet Li Bai to his home, so he deliberately wrote an extremely attractive letter.Letter cloud: Are you curious, sir?There are ten miles of peach blossoms here; sir, there are ten thousand hotels here When Li Bai saw the letter, he came happily. Wang Lun went forward to meet him, and only then did he explain the truth: Peach Blossom, the name of Tanshui, there is no Peach Blossom; Wanjia, the owner's surname is Wanye, there is no Wanjia Hotel

Li Bai laughed out loud.He stayed at Wang Lun's house for several months, and wrote the well-known quatrain "To Wang Lun" when he was leaving. This Wang Lun is also kind-hearted, and cleverly used the multiple meanings of peach blossom and Wanjia to achieve the purpose of inviting Li Bai to come to his house as a guest.If you tell the truth, you can't have such a strong attraction to Li Bai.