一得之愚

Origin and story

The expression draws on a saying preserved in the Shiji's biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin: even a wise person, after many considerations, may make a mistake, while even a foolish person may arrive at one worthwhile idea. This balances intellectual humility with the possibility that useful advice can come from an unexpected source. The later compact phrase turns that principle into a courteous way to present one's own view. Yue Ke's Song collection Tingshi records its exact wording in a formal letter. Calling an idea one's 'foolish little insight' is self-deprecation, not a judgment that the proposal is necessarily worthless.