The origin of the idiom "A cunning rabbit has three burrows" and a detailed explanation of its meaning

“When the flying birds are all gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog is cooked.” This refers to the Spring and Autumn period, when Fan Li, a senior official of the State of Yue, urged King Goujian of Yue, who had been defeated by the State of Wu and taken captive, to endure humiliation and surrender, biding his time to take revenge. Goujian followed his advice, and in the end finally defeated the State of Wu. After restoring his state, King Goujian of Yue decided to richly reward the great meritorious official Fan Li. But Fan Li, having seen the cruelty and intrigue of successive courts, felt that Goujian was a man with whom one could share hardships but not enjoy prosperity, so he declined the official post and went off to live in seclusion. Before leaving, Fan Li also left a letter for another senior official, Wen Zhong, warning him in the letter: “When the flying birds are all gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog is cooked.” It means that once the flying birds have all been shot, the bow and arrows will be put away and never used again; once the rabbit has been killed, the hunting dog will also be killed by its master and cooked to be eaten. Wen Zhong did not heed Fan Li's loyal advice, and in the end was indeed killed by Goujian. “When the rabbit dies, the dog is cooked” is a metaphor for abandoning or killing those who once contributed their strength and rendered meritorious service after a matter has succeeded. Sometimes, “when the birds are all gone, the bow is put away; when the rabbit dies, the dog is cooked” is also used together, with the same meaning. So then, which book does the allusion of a cunning rabbit has three burrows come from? What exactly does it mean?

According to relevant historical documents, the literal meaning of the idiom "a cunning rabbit has three burrows" is that a cunning rabbit has multiple burrows, which is a metaphor for a person needing more concealment measures and contingency plans to protect themselves. It comes from the famous piece in the Strategies of the Warring States, "Feng Nuan as a Retainer of Lord Mengchang." "A cunning rabbit has three burrows" is explained as a cunning rabbit preparing several hiding places. It is a metaphor for having many hiding places or methods. The source is Strategies of the Warring States · Qi Strategies IV: “A cunning rabbit has three burrows, and only thus can it escape death.”

The Strategies of the Warring States is a historical work in the style of separate states, also known as the State Strategies. It records the affairs of the Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou, and the states of Qin, Qi, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Yan, Song, Wei, and Zhongshan. The recorded period begins in the early Warring States period and ends with Qin's unification of the six states, covering about 240 years of history. It is divided into 12 strategies, 33 volumes, and 497 chapters in total, mainly recording the political propositions and words and strategies of the itinerant persuaders of the Warring States period, and can also be called a practical drill manual for itinerant persuaders.

This book also displays the historical characteristics and social appearance of the Eastern Zhou and Warring States era, and is an important classic for studying the history of the Warring States. The ideological tendency of the Strategies of the Warring States, because it conflicts with orthodox Confucian thought, has been criticized by scholars of successive dynasties.

The State Strategies was once denounced as “heretical doctrine” and “a book that betrays the classics and departs from the Way.” “The Strategies of the Warring States basically forms a school of its own. Its moral philosophy mostly draws from Daoism, its social and political views are close to Legalism, and it alone is incompatible with Confucianism, and for this reason it has been criticized by later scholars.”

The authors were not one person, and the book was not completed in one period. The authors of most of the articles in the book are unknown. Liu Xiang of the Western Han edited it into 33 chapters, and the book title was also decided by Liu Xiang. By the Song dynasty there were already omissions, which were supplemented and corrected by Zeng Gong. There is a commentary by Gao You of the Eastern Han, now incomplete. Bao Biao of the Song changed the order of the original book and made a new commentary. Wu Shidao wrote the Collated Commentary on the Strategies of the Warring States, the modern scholar Jin Zhengwei wrote Supplementary Explanations of the Strategies of the Warring States, and the contemporary scholar Miao Wenyuan wrote a New Collated Commentary on the Strategies of the Warring States.