Qu Yuan, a poet and statesman of the Warring States period, served as a high-ranking official under King Huai of Chu. At that time, Qin was the strongest state, repeatedly invading the other six kingdoms. Chu, a major power in the south, was threatened. Qu Yuan advocated allying with the eastern giant, Qi, to resist Qin together. But King Huai, swayed by slander, lost trust in him. Fearing a Chu-Qi alliance, Qin sent Zhang Yi to visit Chu. Zhang Yi told King Huai, "If Your Majesty breaks with Qi, Qin will gift you six hundred li of land."
"If the State of Chu does not befriend Qi but instead allies with Qin, Qin is willing to cede 600 li of land to Chu."
The foolish and greedy King Huai of Chu cut off friendly relations with Qi. He then sent an envoy to Qin to accept 600 li of land. But Zhang Yi flatly denied it, saying, "There's no such thing as 600 li. I said 6 li."
King Huai of Chu, upon hearing the envoy's report, flew into a rage and hastily launched an attack on Qin, only to suffer a crushing defeat. Qi refused to come to his aid, and Chu was forced to sue for peace, ceding the Hanzhong region to Qin to settle the matter.
The next year, Zhang Yi returned. He bribed King Huai of Chu's favored minister Jin Shang and his favored concubine Zheng Xiu to speak on his behalf. King Huai of Chu once again believed Zhang Yi's honeyed words, forming a "brotherly alliance" with Qin, vowing never to attack each other.
By the time Qu Yuan returned from his diplomatic mission to the State of Qi, the schemer Zhang Yi had already slipped away. Qu Yuan urgently warned King Huai of Chu, exposing Zhang Yi's plot and advising him not to harbor any illusions about the State of Qin. However, Qu Yuan had already been stripped of his official post, and King Huai grew even more distant and distrustful of him.
After a while, King Zhao of Qin invited King Huai of Chu to come to Qin to discuss alliance and marriage. Qu Yuan strongly opposed King Huai's visit, saying, "Qin is aggressive by nature, like a tiger or wolf; their words cannot be trusted. You should not go."
However, King Huai of Chu's youngest son feared offending the state of Qin, and his consort Zheng Xiu and others also strongly urged him to go. Rejecting Qu Yuan's loyal advice, King Huai went to Qin to meet King Zhao. As a result, he was detained and ultimately died in Qin.
Later, the idiom "A Nation of Tigers and Wolves" came to be used as a metaphor for greedy and violent aggressors.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biography of Qu Yuan"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "虎狼之国" came to describe a metaphor for greedy and violent aggressors.