A
俎 was a four-legged bronze or wooden stand used in ancient Chinese ritual meals and ancestral sacrifices, on which sacrificial meat was displayed. The famous line
人为刀俎，
我为鱼肉 ('Others are the knife and chopping board; I am the fish and meat') comes from the Hongmen Banquet (
鸿门宴) episode in 《
史记·
项羽本纪》, when Liu Bang's strategist Fan Kuai realized they were powerless guests. The phrase still describes being utterly at someone's mercy.
