Meaning:
To deceitfully purport to remain on good terms with both sides in a conflict.
Background:
The proverbial saying `hold with the hare...' is first found in John
Heywood's 1546 glossary ``A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the
Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue'':
There is no mo [more] suche tytifils [scoundrels] in Englands grounde,
To holde with the hare, and run with the hounde.
When Heywood coined (or more probably, heard and then wrote down) `hold with
the hare and run with the hounds' hare coursing was a commonplace form of
hunting for food. In more recent years it was undertaken for the
entertainment of the onlookers. It is now illegal in the UK, although it
still takes place. The `holding' refers to the hare's tactic of pressing
itself low to the ground to avoid being seen, only bolting at the last
moment.
The notion that one can't legitimately support both sides of an argument is
graphically illustrated by the hare/hounds imagery as there is no grey area -
either the hare gets away or it is killed.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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Some Kuomintang officials held with the hare and ran with the hounds by working
for the party on the sides. They did not follow Mr. Chiang to Taiwan and stayed
to suffer and, indeed, few survived the endless political campaigns on the
mainland after 1949.
