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The quote"我很想询问奸雄所见略同的由来" seems very interesting to me. And in Google Translate, it translates to "I would like to ask the king's men great minds think alike the origin of." It doesn't seem to make sense. What is the piece of important Chinese history this derives from?

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    It should be 英雄所见略同.
    – Fivesheep
    Aug 12, 2012 at 1:39
  • 奸人 is the exact opposite of 英雄.
    – 杨以轩
    Aug 12, 2012 at 11:22
  • Just following Fivesheep's trail of thought, instead of saying 'gread minds think alike', you could say 'evil minds think alike'. The gist is the same really.
    – deutschZuid
    Aug 12, 2012 at 21:45
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    奸雄所见略同 can also be in a joking sense, to mean "the cunning people think alike", such as when two coworkers think of a special way to make things happen in a business deal.
    – nonopolarity
    Aug 17, 2012 at 11:21

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Based on the web search, It was first appeared in "<三国志·蜀书·庞统传> with annotations by 裴松之", it first appeared as "天下智谋之士所见略同耳". and then it was used as 英雄所见略同 in some later books. 英雄(Heroes, Great Leaders...) instead of 智谋之士( aka 谋士, counsellors to emperors). Literally, It can be interpreted as: Heroes ( to kings/emperors) share same points of views and strategies, or Heroes' points of views are a bit similar. The difference is from the interpretation of the char 略, e.g 略 as in 战略 (strategy), or 略 as in 略有所闻 (a bit).

the widely used translation for this idiom is "Great minds think alike", it doesn't matter which interpretation you used.

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