Another Chinese ancient military essay 36 Stratagems

Thirty-Six Stratagems

The Thirty-Six Stratagems and Sun Tuz's "art of war" were two very known military essay. In fact The Thirty-Six Stratagems is the most know by Chinese people.Nowadays The Thirty-Six Stratagems become 36 Chinese proverbs, people often use these words when talking.

The oldest form of a collection of stratagems might date during the Southern Dynasties empire of (Southern) Qi. Wang Jingzi is said to be the first Chinese person making use of the stirrup. The profound symbolism and popularity of many of these stratagems - with their historical background - made them a useful variety of proverbs for daily life and every possible situation.

The modern version dates from 1647, shortly after the Manchus had conquered China. The thirty-six stratagems are arranged in a group of proverbs.

The Thirty-Six Stratagems was originally a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, as well as in civil interaction, often through unorthodox or deceptive means.

They were first published in the western world by Harro von Senger from Switzerland after he heard the Chinese proverb "If all else fails, retreat" at Taipei University. The Stratagems are often misnamed as strategies; however, stratagem (synonymous with ruse) has nothing to do with strategy (being a long-term plan or outline).

Exemplarious translation:

1．Crossing the sea under camouflage (practise deception)

2．Relieve the State of Zhao by besieging the state of Wei

3. Kill somebody by using another person's knife (kill someone through the agency of another)

4. Wait at one's ease for the fatigued enemy

5. Plunder a house when it is on fire (profit from another's misfortune)

6. Make faint to the east but attack in the west

7. Produce something out of nothing (A plain lie. Make somebody believe there was something when there is in fact nothing.)

8. Secretly crossing over to Chencang (pretend to prepare along one path while secretly going along another)

9. Watch the fire from the other side of the river (showing non-concernedness)

10. Conceal a knife in your smile

11. The plum dies for the apricot (substitute this for that)

12. Make off with a sheep in passing by

13.Beaten the grass and frighten away the snake

14. Resurrect in a new guise

15. Lure the tiger out of the mountain

16. Let the enemy leave in order to catch him

17. Throw a brick to allure a gem

18. Catch the ringleader first in order to capture all his bandit followers

19. Take away the firewood under the cauldron (take drastic measures to strike at source of a problem)

20. Fish in troubled water (try to take advantage of a disturbed situation to take in profits)

21. Cast off the molted skin (escape unnoticed)

22. Close the gate to catch the thieves

23. Befriend distant countries while attacking those nearby

24. Conquer Hao after obtaining permittance to cross another country (forge neutral alliances)

25. Steal the beems and pillars and replace them with rotten timbers

26. Revile the locust tree while pointing at the mulberry (scold one person through another)

27. Pretend madness without loosing the balance

28. Take away the ladder when the enemy is in the second floor

29. False flowers on a tree (use decoys)

30. Make the guest to the host ("cuckoo's egg strategy")

31. The stratagem of (making use of) a beautiful woman (as decoy)

32. The stratagem of (open gates and) an emptied city (with soldiers waiting in ambush)

33. The stratagem of sowing the seeds of discord (among the enemies)

34. The stratagem of self-mutilation (in order to lure out the enemy)

35. The stratagem of combining rings (of various stratagems)

36. The best stratagem is to run away

Every stratagem was described in four or five Chinese characters. The English version just in one sentence.

It's hard to understand the meaning of some stratagems.

Every stratagem come with a ancient military story.

There are some explains of the deep stratagem

1．Crossing the sea under camouflage (practise deception)

The stratagem references an episode when Tang emperor Tang Gaozong balked from crossing the sea to a campaign against Koguryo. His General brought him the invitation of a wealthy peasant to supper. As the emperor entered this house, it began to shake - the General had deceivedly lured the emperor onto a ship! Upon discovering this, the emperor decided to carry on and later finished the successful campaign.

This stratagem means that you mask your real goals, thus deceiving even the emperor / heavens itself with a fake goal, until they are confronted with finished facts. Harro von Senger notes in the German-Language "Die List" that to grasp the full meaning, it would be something like "to deceive the holy virgin Mary" in the western hemisphere.

2. Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao

(Wei,Zhao,Qi are the names of the States of ancient China.)

The origins of this proverb is from the Warring States Period. The state of Wei attacked Zhao and laid siege to its capital Handan. Zhao turned to Qi for help, but the Qi general Sun Bin determined it would be unwise to meet the army of Wèi head on, so he instead attacked their capital at Daliang. The army of Wèi retreated in haste, and the tired troops were ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Guiling, with the Wèi general Pang Juan slain on the field. Note that this campaign is also described explicitly in the Art of War of Master Sun Bin the younger.

The idea here is to avoid a head on battle with a strong enemy, and instead strike at his weakness elsewhere. This will force the strong enemy to retreat in order to support his weakness. Battling against the now tired and low-morale enemy will give a much higher chance of success.

11. Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree.

This stratagem means that there are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. This is the scapegoat strategy whereby someone else suffers the consequences so that the rest do not.

Cao Cao(a famous general) of the Three Kingdoms Period demonstrated this strategy. During a siege, Cao's supplies ran low so he called in the supply captain and told him to dilute the rice with water to save grains. When the soldiers started to complain, Cao ordered for the captain to be killed. He would explain to his troops that the captain had been selling supplies to the enemy. This raised the army's morale and they were victorious in a few more days.

13. Startle the snake by hitting the grass around it

Do something unaimed, but spectacular ("hitting the grass") to provoke a response of the enemy ("startle the snake"), thereby giving away his plans or position, or just taunt him. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking. More widely used as "[Do not] startle the snake by hitting the grass". An imprudent act will give your position or intentions away to the enemy.

14. Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul

Take an institution, a technology, or a method that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose. Revive something from the past by giving it a new purpose or bring to life old ideas, customs, or traditions and reinterpret them to fit your purposes.

17. Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem

This proverb is based on a story involving two famous poets of the Tang Dynasty. There was a great poet named Zhao Gu and another lesser poet by the name of Chang Jian . While Chang Jian was traveling in Suzhou, he heard news that Zhao Gu would be visiting a temple in the area. Chang Jian wished to learn from the master poet, so he devised a plan and went to the temple in advance, then wrote a poem on the temple walls with only two of the four lines completed, hoping Zhao Gu would see it and finish the poem. Zhao Gu acted as Chang Jian foresaw, and from this story came the proverb.