酷吏列传

酷吏 means 'harsh official'. Most of the men in the chapter served Emperor Wu of Han, who relied on them to break the great families and enforce his laws. When one of them, 义纵, had more than four hundred people put to death in a single day, the whole commandery was left 不寒而栗, 'shivering though it was not cold'.

Its preface argues that laws and punishments alone cannot make people good, and recalls that the early Han law was so lenient its net let through 吞舟之鱼, fish big enough to swallow a boat, and yet the country was well governed. The image lives on in 漏网之鱼.