Lore from the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, Appendix 06: How To Exorcise Worm Tongues

斩妖除魔记 (zhǎn yāo chú mó jì)

Rumors are like kerosene spread across the floor, you just need stupidity to spark fire. — 2021–08.05

“Worm Tongue” is a term I refer to describe slanderous people. Since ancient times, there are no lack of accounts where generals, no matter how formidable, like 岳飞 (yuè fēi), 吴子旭 (wú zi xù) et al, fell tragically under insidious ministers like 秦桧 (qín guì) and 伯嚭 (bó pǐ). Kingdoms collapsed under the same venom of these Worm Tongues. Insidious ministers, like 許攸 (xǔ yōu) in the Three Kingdoms Era, had pushed honest administration, e.g. people like 田豐 (tián fēng), to their tragic end, and other treacherous ministers, like 趙高 (zhào gāo) and 郭開 (guō kāi), removing abled generals, e.g. 李牧 (lǐmù), causing their entire enterprise their fatal collapse.

I also relate the term to full-time politicians, whether in corporate or politics. In our current day, it can be gloating misinformation people into hatred and war, manipulating the mass to commit evil ends with propaganda and fabrication. The trance that worm-tongues put their victims into, is similar to the mythological serpent that hypnotizes its prey, before it eats them.

* origin of the `worm tongue` is most-likely the character created by…