The Meaning of "Tu Si Gou Peng" (The Hound Is Boiled Once the Rabbits Are Gone) and a Detailed Explanation of Its Origin

"Tu Si Gou Peng" (the hound is boiled once the rabbits are gone) is a widely circulated Chinese idiom. Its literal meaning is that after the rabbits have all been hunted down, the hunting dog loses its usefulness and is boiled and eaten by its master. It is often used as a metaphor for how, once a task succeeds, the people who once made great efforts are instead cast aside or even killed, carrying a sorrowful implication that meritorious officials rarely meet a good end.

This saying first appeared in the "Records of the Grand Historian: The Hereditary House of King Goujian of Yue." After the State of Yue destroyed the State of Wu, Fan Li saw that the King of Yue could share hardship but not share peace and prosperity, so he urged his colleague Wen Zhong to withdraw early, writing in a letter the famous lines: "When the flying birds are all gone, the fine bow is put away; when the cunning rabbits are dead, the running dog is boiled." Later, when Han Xin fell from power, he likewise voiced a similar lament, making this allusion even more widely known.

In modern contexts, "tu si gou peng" is mostly used to comment on phenomena in the workplace, in history, or in interpersonal relationships. For example, when core members are marginalized after a project ends, people often use this term to describe it. It is similar in meaning to "niao jin gong cang" (the birds gone, the bow put away), "guo he chai qiao" (crossing the river then demolishing the bridge), and "xie mo sha lv" (killing the donkey once the millstone is removed), and these often can be substituted for one another. It should be noted that this term carries a clear derogatory and cautionary tone, usually pointing to an unjust act of abandonment rather than a normal personnel change.

When studying this idiom, people easily take the character "peng" (to boil) to mean a general kind of cold-shouldering, but its original meaning is in fact quite heavy, referring to a threat to one's life or a thorough settling of accounts. Once this background is understood, looking again at stories from history of meritorious officials retreating in time to avoid danger, one can appreciate why the ancients so repeatedly brought up what they called "ming zhe bao shen" (wise people protect themselves).