impengo's Journal: A useful instance of an impossible task: imperial humor?

The old problem of torturing the system by setting it an impossible task is one exploited best by those that understand it; Russians set the Russian system the best impossible tasks, and Chinese the Chinese system etc. In a system best observed through Hollywood, the movie "The Departed" is an example of a Mandarin - the pseudo-impossible task of a spy catching himself. The other overused Hollywood workhorse of the Stalking Horse, whereby an otherwise innocent insider is blamed for the activities of a guilty party, and left to clear his name by catching the bad guy in pseudo-vigilante fashion can accidentally set the Mandarin an impossible task. I bet that kind of thing passed for humor in Imperial China. Upon checking the meaning of Stalking Horse in Wikipedia, I learn of my error. The misconception definitely derived from Hollywood. Also, a Mandarin set to be a stalking horse would not be guaranteed to get caught. However, it would complicate his life a LOT! IN the mean time, a rueful smile at myself for assuming the purpose of the stalking horse was to catch the bad guy.