Han Xin was one of the great generals of the founding of the Han dynasty. In 196 BCE, he was put to death at the Changle Palace on a charge of joining a rebellion, and his family was wiped out to the third degree.
In Sima Qian’s account, the adviser Kuai Tong had warned him: “A man whose courage and strategy make his lord tremble is in danger. A man whose merit covers the world is not rewarded.” Han Xin himself quoted a saying that became a proverb: “When the cunning hare is dead, the good hound is cooked.”