People say, when all the rabbits have been hunted, the hunting dog will be killed and cooked; when all the swans flying in the sky have been shot down, the bow will be put away; when all the enemy states are conquered, the military counselors will be put to death. Now the whole realm has been brought under control, it is time that I should be killed.
Variant translation: It's really like people say, 'The rabbit is dead, the excellent hound is burned and killed; the high-flying birds are light, the excellent bows and arrows are collected; the enemy is shattered, and the courtiers die.' Now the world is Now the world is safe, I should have been killed!
As quoted in: The Road to the Throne: How Liu Bang Founded China's Han Dynasty (Algora Publishing, 2011) by Hing Ming Hung, p. 178
