The cunning rabbit has three burrows. The original metaphor is that there are especially many places to hide, and it is used to avoid disasters and scourges. Now it is more used to describe the many ways to cover up and the well planned stealth.
Idiom Pronunciation:
狡兔三窟
jiǎo tù sān kū
Origin:
《战国策·齐策四》：狡兔有三窟，仅得其免死身，今君在一窟，未得高枕而卧也，请为君复凿二窟。
Story:
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a man named Meng Changjun in the state of Qi. He liked to make friends with literary scholars and chivalrous people, and he always invited them to stay at his home for a long time in order to discuss state affairs with them. Among these people, there was a man named Feng Deceive, who often stayed for a long time without doing anything.
Once, Feng Deceive went to Xue for Meng Changjun to collect a debt, but instead of asking the local people for the debt, he even burned the debt, which the people of Xue thought was Meng Changjun’s kindness and were grateful. It was not until later that Meng Changjun was relieved of his ministerial post by the king of Qi and went to settle in Xue, where he was warmly welcomed by the people of Xue, that Meng Changjun realized Feng Deceive’s talent.
It was not until then that Feng Deceive, who did not talk much, said to Meng Changjun, “Usually a smart rabbit has three burrows to escape from the hunters in an emergency and be spared from death. But you have only one hiding place, so you can’t sleep with your pillow high in the air yet, and I am willing to arrange two other hiding places for you where you can rest assured.”
So Feng Deceive went to see King Hui of Liang, and he told him that if King Hui of Liang could invite Meng Changjun to help him rule the country, then the state of Liang would surely become stronger. So King Hui of Liang sent someone to invite Lord Meng Chang to Liang and prepared to make him an important official position to govern the country. However, when the messengers from Liang came three times in a row, Feng Deceive told Lord Meng Chang not to say yes. The news that Liang sent someone to invite Lord Meng Chang to govern Liang reached the king of Qi, and when the king of Qi was in a hurry, he sent someone to ask Lord Meng Chang to return to Qi as a minister.
Feng deceives Meng Changjun to ask the king of Qi that he wishes to have the ancestral sacrificial vessels of Qi, and to put them in the land of Xue, as well as to build a shrine and temple to ensure the safety of the land of Xue. After the temple was built, Feng Deceive said to Meng Changjun, “Now that the three places of rest belonging to you are built, from now on you can put up your pillow and sleep in peace.”
This is the origin of the idiom “The cunning rabbit has three burrows”.
