To Give an Account Genuinely

After the destruction of Xin Dynasty of the regent Wang Mang, Liu Xiu led the troops under orders to suppress the despots in Hebei. After defeating Wang Lang who called himself the King in the south of Hebei, Liu Xiu lived in Handan. In the daytime, he had a rest in the Wenming Hall.

One day, the general Geng Yan paid a visit to him, and said,“Nowadays, under the rule of King Gengshi, the politics was very corrupted and both the emperor and the ministers were loose in morals. It was said that the envoy of King Gengshi came from the west to ask you to hand over the military power. You mustn't obey him. I would like to return to Youzhou and recruit more picked men. We can give the matter further thought and discuss it later.”

Liu Xiu sat up and said,“If you go back on your word, I will kill you.”

Geng Yan said,“Your Majesty, the way you treat me is just like a father to his son. So I opened up my heart and gave an account of the plans genuinely and sincerely to you.”

Liu Xiu said,“Just now I was just kidding.”

This idiom means narrating something genuinely and sincerely.

It tells us that if we want to make success in our career or study, we should a relationship of harmony, honesty, mutual trust, respect and love with others.