During the late Spring and Autumn period, the debauched King Ping of Chu shamelessly took his own daughter-in-law as his concubine. Heeding the false accusations of the crown prince's tutor, Fei Wuji, the king ordered the prince's execution and also had the prince's other tutor, Wu She, along with his eldest son, Wu Shang, killed. Wu She's younger son, Wu Zixu, fled to the State of Song.
To avenge his father and brother, Wu Zixu endured countless hardships, fleeing from the State of Song to the State of Wu. Determined to borrow Wu's army to attack Chu, he also helped Helü assassinate King Liao of Wu and seize the throne. Later, Wu Zixu led a massive Wu army alongside King Helü in an assault on Chu, storming all the way to the capital, Ying. The reigning King Zhao of Chu fled with a handful of ministers and soldiers to the State of Sui (in present-day southern Sui County, Hubei).
The day after entering the Ying capital, Wu Zixu urged King Helü to demolish the Chu ancestral temples. Greedy for Chu's territory, Helü agreed and had the temples torn down. Still unsatisfied, Wu Zixu then requested permission to dig up King Ping of Chu's grave. Helü, acknowledging Wu Zixu's great contributions in the campaign against Chu, granted his request.
Wu Zixu learned that King Ping of Chu's tomb was at Liaotai Lake outside the East Gate. But when he led his soldiers there, they found only a vast expanse of water, with no sign of the grave. Later, guided by a stonemason, they located the burial site, dug up the coffin, and exhumed the king's corpse. The moment Wu Zixu saw the body, his fury erupted. He seized a bronze whip and struck it three hundred times, shattering even the bones, and finally chopped off the head.
When Wu Zixu's former friend Shen Baoxu learned of his act of whipping the corpse, he sent a letter to Wu Zixu. The letter read:
"You have gone too far. You were once King Ping of Chu's subject, yet to avenge a personal grudge, you won't even spare the dead—this is truly cruel!"
After reading the letter, Wu Zixu told the messenger, "I am too busy with military affairs to reply. Please thank Shen Jun for me and tell him: loyalty and filial piety cannot both be fulfilled. I am like a traveler far from home—the day is nearly dark, and the road ahead is still long, so I have no choice but to act against common sense."
Wu Zixu met a tragic end. During the conflict between Wu and Yue, he urged King Fuchai of Wu to reject Yue's peace offer and halt the campaign against Qi. Ignoring his advice, Fuchai ultimately sent a sword, ordering Wu Zixu to take his own life.
Later, the idiom "at the end of one's rope" came to describe being in a hopeless situation with no way out.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biography of Wu Zixu"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "日暮途穷" came to describe being in a hopeless situation with no way out.