Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/267

248 that region; and when Liu Pang seemed put out by the extravagance of the demand, Chang Liang pressed his foot and whispered, “Do so!” Of such importance was his alliance to the House of Han. Again, when about to dispatch him against the Wei State, Liu Pang asked who was the general likely to be in command of the enemy's forces. On being told that it was E Po Chih, he cried out in derision, “Why, his mouth still smells of mother’s milk; he is no match for our Han Hsin!" In BC. 201, after the final defeat of Hsiang Chi, he was created Prince of Ch‘u; but in the following year he was secretly denounced to the Emperor as being egged on by K‘uai T‘ung to conspiracy and revolt. The Emperor thereupon, at Chang Liang's suggestion, gave out that he was about to visit the lake of ‘$2 5%? Y1'in- méng in modern Hupeh, and summoned all his vassals to meet him. H-an Hsin came among the rest, and was at once seized and bound and carried back to Lo-yang. He is now said to have uttered the memorable words, “When the cunning hares are all dead, the hunting-dog goes to the cooking-pot; when the soaring birds are all killed, the trusty bow is laid aside; when the nation’s enemies have all perished, the wise counsellor is forgotten. The empire is now at peace; ’tis time I should go to the cooking-pot.” He was however pardoned, and ennobled as Marquis of Huai-yin, a title under which he is still often mentioned. In B.C. 196, when lfi Ch‘én Hsi revolted, and the Emperor took the field in person, Han Hsin was prevented by illness, real or feigned, from accompanying the expedition. He then planned to seize the Empress Lii Hon and the Heir Apparent; but the plot was divulged by a eunuch who owed him a grudge, and when Han Hsin went to congratulate the Empress on the news which had just arrived, of the defeat of Ch‘én Hsi, he was seized and beheaded, and his father's, mother's, and wife's