Chapter 43 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is titled “Zhuge Liang Debates the Scholars, Lu Su Argues Down the Crowd.” In it, Zhuge Liang argues with the scholars of Wu.
To Zhang Zhao, he replies with a medical comparison. A gravely ill man must first be given thin gruel and mild medicine. “Only when his organs are in harmony and his body is gradually at ease” may he be given meat and strong medicine. The idiom 舌战群儒, to fight a crowd of scholars with the tongue, comes from this chapter.