Tipping-off the Snakes 打草惊蛇

The Chinese idiom 打草惊蛇 (da3 cao3 jing1 she2) literally means rustle the grass and startle the snake. It comes from a story about a county magistrate named Wang Lu (王鲁) who lived in what is today known as the Anhui province in East China.

Wang Lu was thoroughly corrupt. He loved money more than life itself and it was widely known that he took many bribes. However, what was not widely known was that one of Wang's secretaries was equally corrupt and often schemed with Wang.

One day a man went to see Wang to file a complaint alleging that the secretary had committed a number of serious offences involving bribery and extortion. The alleged crimes were very similar to crimes that Wang had been perpetrating himself for many years. Wang Lu was so frightened he might be implicated that he was at a loss about how to handle the complaint, and for a critical few moments, he was unable to think straight. Instead of handling the case in the normal manner and issuing a judgement, he inexplicably wrote the following:

By rustling the grass, you have given someone like me, who resembles a snake hiding in the grass, a timely warning!

The original lesson from this Chinese story was that exposing and punishing one person for their wrongs can serve as a warning (and hence deterrent) for others. However, today the story serves as a warning that indiscreet or premature actions can forewarn an enemy, allowing them to escape or cover their tracks. The English idiom tip off the enemy has an equivalent meaning.

Sometimes the Chinese idiom 打草惊蛇 (da3 cao3 jing1 she2) is translated as the English idiom let sleeping dogs lie. However, I believe this is incorrect. To let sleeping dogs lie is to avoid doing or saying something that you know is likely to provoke a dispute or some other bad outcome. It is used to describe situations wher some things are better left unsaid or not done - who in their right mind would tease a sleeping dog!