During the late Western Han Dynasty, Liu Li inherited the throne of the Liang Kingdom. He ruled his domain with an iron fist, acting with reckless abandon and often brutally beating local officials.
The ministers of the Liang Kingdom could no longer tolerate the situation, so they submitted a memorial to the imperial court, requesting that Prince Liang be restrained and forbidden from leaving the palace without cause to stir up trouble. Emperor Cheng of Han approved their request.
But King of Liang paid no heed to the court's reprimands, often leaving the palace without permission and retaliating against ministers who submitted memorials. The ministers of Liang, unable to bear it any longer, directly reported Liu Li to the throne for "slandering the court and harboring resentment." Emperor Cheng was greatly alarmed and ordered an investigation, which then uncovered scandalous affairs within the King of Liang's palace.
The investigative body reported their findings to Emperor Cheng and demanded that Liu Li be executed. However, the imperial advisor Gu Yong objected, arguing, "Your Majesty should not concern yourself with the private affairs of your subjects." The emperor thought this over and agreed, so Liu Li faced no consequences.
Protected by the imperial court, Liu Li grew even more reckless, ordering his servants to murder an upright official and then killing the servants to silence them, yet when the court learned of it, they merely stripped him of five counties' fiefs.
After Emperor Cheng died, Emperor Ai ascended the throne, and Liu Li grew even more contemptuous of the court, becoming addicted to killing as he murdered his subordinate Zhonglang Cao Jiang and others in succession.
When Emperor Ai heard this, he flew into a rage and dispatched the Imperial Secretary and other high-ranking officials to the Kingdom of Liang to investigate the case. Liu Li, the king, feigned illness and refused to rise from his bed.
The investigating officials summoned the Liang minister, accusing Liu Li of refusing to repent and opposing the imperial court, and revealed that the court intended to order the confiscation of the Prince of Liang's seal and have him arrested and prosecuted.
Only then did Liu Li grow terrified. Removing his crown, he knelt and pleaded, "I lost both parents as a child, grew up among eunuchs and maids in the deep palace, and picked up bad habits. The ministers around me spread gossip, so even my smallest faults reached the court, earning Your Majesty's displeasure. This time, I killed the imperial attendant Cao Jiang, knowing my crime is grave. Now winter is nearly over, and the spring amnesty is near. Out of fear of death, I feigned illness—not to defy the court, but only to cling to hope of the coming pardon."
Sure enough, the following spring, Emperor Ai declared a general amnesty, and Liu Li escaped disaster once again. But his good fortune did not last long; later, when Wang Mang usurped the throne, Liu Li was stripped of his title and reduced to a commoner, and soon after, he took his own life.
Later, people used the idiom "cling to life and fear death" to refer to being greedy for survival and afraid of dying.
Source: *Book of Han*, "Biographies of Three Princes of Emperor Wen"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "贪生怕死" came to describe being greedy for survival and afraid of dying.