Wu Zixu told the king of Wu to destroy Yue — the king sent him a sword instead

In 494 BCE the armies of Wu under King Fuchai defeated Yue at the battle of Fujiao. King Goujian of Yue survived only by offering complete submission. Fuchai's senior advisor Wu Zixu argued that Yue was not a defeated vassal but a wounded rival that would rebuild: 'It is the way of Heaven that when a state is flourishing it declines, and when it is in extremity it revives. Goujian is personally brave and bears a deep humiliation. If we do not remove him now, Wu will regret it.'

Fuchai ignored him. The king was drawn to northern campaigns against Qi and to the flattery of Bo Pi, a Wu official who was secretly accepting Yue's gifts. Wu Zixu repeated the warning so often that Fuchai came to see it as disloyalty rather than foresight. In 484 BCE, after Wu Zixu was sent north with the army, he told his son to flee to Qi, saying he alone would stay loyal to Wu and die there.

Fuchai interpreted this as treason. He sent Wu Zixu the sword of his own father with the message: 'You should have made yourself scarce when you had the chance.' Wu Zixu killed himself. Before he died he asked that his eyes be hung on the city gate so he could watch the Yue army enter. Nine years later, in 473 BCE, Goujian's rebuilt army destroyed Wu. Fuchai was surrounded, refused to surrender, and killed himself.