After the Qin dynasty's Chancellor Li Si was falsely accused and imprisoned, the Second Emperor sent the eunuch Zhao Gao to preside over his case. Zhao Gao, who held a grudge against Li Si, seized the opportunity to arrest Li Si's entire family and guests. During the interrogation, without allowing any explanation, Zhao Gao had Li Si brutally beaten with over a thousand strokes, forcing him to confess to the fabricated crime of conspiring with his eldest son Li You to rebel with bandits.
Unable to bear the pain, Li Si falsely confessed under torture. He had considered suicide but, believing himself eloquent, meritorious, and without rebellious intent, hoped to sway the Second Emperor through a written plea. In prison, he meticulously composed a letter detailing seven achievements from his thirty-plus years as Qin's chancellor, deliberately framing them as "seven crimes" in ironic reverse. He transcribed it in elegant small-seal script and handed it to Zhao Gao, then daily craned his neck, awaiting news of pardon.
Who knew that Zhao Gao never submitted the report at all; he said, "How could a prisoner present a petition!"
A few days later, Zhao Gao sent over a dozen of his retainers disguised as imperial inspectors, messengers, and advisors to interrogate Li Si in turns. Whenever Li Si tried to recant and tell the truth, he was beaten even more brutally. When the Second Emperor later sent someone to verify Li Si's confession, Li Si, fearing the same torture, dared not change his story and signed the confession. When the verdict was submitted, the Second Emperor gleefully said, "Without Zhao Gao, I would have been sold out by the Chancellor."
When the envoy sent by the Second Emperor of Qin to investigate Li You, the governor of Sanchuan Commandery, arrived, Li You had already been killed by Xiang Liang. The messenger returned just as Li Si had been handed over to the prison warden, so Zhao Gao fabricated false charges that Li You had rebelled.
In the seventh month of the second year of Qin Er Shi's reign, Li Si was sentenced to the Five Punishments and ultimately condemned to death by waist-cutting at the market in Xianyang. As he was led from prison, Li Si turned to his second son, who was being escorted alongside him, and asked, "I wish I could go with you again, leading our yellow dog, out through the east gate of Shangcai to hunt the swift hares—can we still do that?" After he spoke, father and son wept together. In the end, Li Si's entire clan, three generations, was executed.
Later, the idiom "East Gate Yellow Dog" came to refer to officials who meet with disaster and regret not withdrawing in time.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biography of Li Si"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "东门黄犬" came to describe officials who meet with disaster and regret not withdrawing in time.