There was a counselor named Chen Ping in the Han Dynasty. One day, he wore a new suit and wore a sword around his waist. He came to the ferry and found a boatman to cross the river for him. Seeing that he was wearing new clothes, the boatman thought he had a lot of gold and silver in his pocket, so he wanted to kill him and ask for money when the boat reached the middle of the river. Sitting in the stern, Chen Ping watched the boatman's vicious eyes drift by, knowing that he had evil thoughts in his heart, and deliberately cried, "Oh, dear! Do you want me to help you hold the boat for a while in this heat? " As he spoke, he took off his clothes one by one and put them on the planking in front of the boatman. The boatman saw him put down his clothes and didn't lick the money. Knowing that he had no treasure on him, he gave up the bad idea of robbery.

The background of the story is that Chen Ping left Xiang Yu. When crossing the Yellow River, the boatman saw that he was a tall, burly and handsome man, walking alone, suspecting that he was an escaped general, and thinking that he must have hidden gold, silver and jewels on him, he kept staring at him and wanted to murder Chen Ping! How can the clever Chen Ping not see it? So he took off his clothes and helped the boatman punt naked. The boatman knew that he had no treasure on him and gave up the idea of murdering him. The story of "Chen Ping crossing the river" fully illustrates Chen Ping's cleverness. He used his wisdom to make the boatman stop doubting himself and give up the idea of murdering himself.