A sixth-century essay reveals 36 ways to defeat an enemy.
Many readers will be familiar with The Art of War. Sun Tzu’s treatise, which roughly dates from the fifth century BC, is a guide to military strategy and is still read widely today. However, this text is one of many produced in China.
One of the most interesting military texts is the 36 Stratagems, an essay that seems to date back to the sixth century but was reworked and added to up to the 20th century. The essay explains these stratagems and offers examples from Chinese history to see how they played out in practice – these include events from ancient China, the Three Kingdoms period, and the Tang Dynasty.
Gao Yuan’s book, Lure the Tiger out of the Mountains: The 36 Stratagems of Ancient China, is a guide to this work, offering modern examples of how they can be used, especially in the world of business. With the help of Gao Yuan’s analysis, here are the 36 stratagems explained:
1. Cross the Sea by Fooling the Sky
The first stratagem advocates hiding things out in the open, for example allowing people to know where your forces will be. “This stratagem works because people expect secrets to be hidden,” Gao Yuan explains. “It is logical to think that such plans must be made and conducted in secrecy. Thus people tend to neglect open activities that hide underlying schemes.”
2. Besiege the Kingdom of Wei to Save the Kingdom of Zhao
This is the stratagem of indirect confrontation, which is better than a direct attack. Gao Yuan writes:
The stratagem of besieging Wei to save Zhao plays on the yin-yang relationship between directness and indirectness, concentration and division, and solidity and void. It may mean concentrating one’s forces to strike at the enemy’s weakest point, taking advantage of an opponent’s shortcomings, solving a problem by focusing on an aspect that seems tangential but is actually key, or deflecting a problem onto something or somebody else.
3. Kill with a Borrowed Knife
Gao Yuan explains this stratagem by writing “If you can cause or convince someone else to do a difficult job, you may save yourself a great deal of trouble. Borrowing a knife to kill means making use of others’ resources for one’s own gain.”
4. Relax while the enemy exhausts himself
There are times when you should rest and not engage an enemy. You can let them make their attacks as it will drain their strength.
5. Loot a Burning House
Attack an enemy that is already having troubles and misfortunes.
6. Make a Feint to the East While Attacking in the West
This is a stratagem that advocates diversionary tactics. Gao Yuan explains:
The underlying principle is similar to the rationale of Stratagem 1, crossing the sea by fooling the sky, because both emphasize substituting the unfamiliar or unexpected for the familiar or anticipated. However, the actual tactics suggested by these two stratagems are different: whereas crossing the sea plays on hiding secrets in the open, feinting to the east employs directional deception. In crossing the sea, one lulls the enemy into a state of sensory numbness so he won’t anticipate attack. In feinting to the east, one creates a false impression so the enemy will think the attack is coming from one place when in fact it is coming from another.
7. Create Something Out of Nothing
Even if you lack something, you can act as if you have it. Propaganda is a good example of this.
8. Pretend to Advance Down One Path While Sneaking Down Another
If you are doing covert actions, then also do public actions to convince your enemy that you have a different plan.
9. Watch the Fires Burning from Across the River
If your enemies are fighting amongst themselves, let them, and concentrate on your own plans. Gao Yuan offers this analysis of how it applied to late medieval Europe:
From the fifteenth century on, while the princes and republics of Central Europe were squabbling and carrying out schemes of aggrandizement against one another, the Western Europeans, particularly the Dutch, Scandinavians, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British, were extending their ambitions across the seas. Then while these powers contended over their overseas conquests, tsarist Russia expanded east.
10. Conceal a Dagger in a Smile
A particularly duplicitous stratagem, it suggests that one gains an enemy’s trust so you can betray them later.
11. Sacrifice a Plum Tree to Save a Peach Tree
Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to achieve victory. Gao Yuan explains:
The stratagem of sacrificing the plum tree for the peach tree plays on the yin-yang relationship between superiority and inferiority, strength and weakness, the overall situation and the local situation, and sacrifice and gain. It requires a careful balancing of partial benefit and overall benefit, as well as of short-term versus long-term returns.
12. Take the Opportunity to Pilfer a Goat
Take advantage of minor opportunities and mistakes your enemy makes, even if all you get out of it is a goat.
13. Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake
Gao Yuan explains this “stratagem plays on the yin-yang relationship between direct and indirect approaches to problems. Under some circumstances, beating around the bush works better than hitting home. By striking at an ancillary target, you can startle your enemy into divulging crucial secrets. Sometimes you can make your opponent believe that you are closing in, and he’ll more readily give himself up.”
14. Raise a Corpse from the Dead
Although not necessarily a corpse, it can be good to use people that you can control – especially those who are easy to manipulate.
15. Lure the Tiger out of the Mountain
It is better to let the enemy come to fight you than for you to go to the enemy.
16. Snag the Enemy by Letting him Off the Hook
Sometimes it’s better to let an opponent escape than corner them. Otherwise, the cornered opponent might fight very desperately. Also, by letting them go, it may make it easier to get them to surrender later.
17. Cast a Brick to Attract Jade
Offer your opponent something minor in hopes that it will lead you to get a bigger prize.
18. Catch the Ringleader First to Nab the Bandits
A classic stratagem: go after the enemy’s leadership. “The stratagem also suggests the more general principle that a force will dissipate when whatever holds it together— be it organization, charisma, or glue — is lost,” Gao Yuan adds. “As a Chinese saying goes, “When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.”
19. Steal the Firewood from under the Cauldron
One way of defeating an opponent is to take away their supplies.
20. Fish in Trouble Waters
When the whole world around you is facing its own difficulties, this is your time to act. Gao Yuan notes that “looting a burning house refers to taking advantage of an opponent’s particular adversities, while fishing in troubled waters means taking advantage of a general situation of confusion and chaos.”
21. Slough off the Cicada’s Shell
Pretend to be in one place while really being in another.
22. Shut the Door to Catch a Thief
Try to surround your enemy and give them no possible way of escaping.
23. Befriend a Distant State While Attacking a Neighbor
Do not go to war against enemies that are far away – concentrate on those closer to you, and with the ones further away, make alliances.
24. Obtain Safe Passage to Conquer the Kingdom of Guo
If you have two adversaries and one of them attacks the other, then it would be a good idea to come to the aid of the one being attacked.
25. Replace the Beams and Pillars with Rotten Timber
This is a slower strategy requiring patience – find ways to replace supplies or personnel with something inferior (or better yet, something that will help you).
26. Point at the Mulberry but Curse the Locust
Gao Yuan explains that “this stratagem advocates the use of admonitions, scare tactics, clubs, or whatever means necessary to warn, frighten, or beat others into compliance. Essentially, it is a strategy of negative reinforcement. By pointing at the mulberry and cursing the locust, the weak can be cowed and the strong convinced.”
27. Play Dumb while Remaining Smart
If you are strong, pretend to be weak.
28. Pull Down the Ladder after the Ascent
Find a way to lure an enemy into a trap. This is most successful when the enemy has no avenue to escape.
29. Deck the Tree with Bogus Blossoms
Essentially make something look better than it actually is.
30. Make the Host and the Guest Exchange Places
A defender often has the advantage of knowing their own terrain. Look for ways to make them fight on terrain that benefits you. Gao Yuan adds:
In Chinese military terminology, one who ventures out of his own territory to fight is the “guest” and one who defends his own territory, the “host.” The relations between guest and host may be of varying types. Sometimes the guest is in a strong position, invited to help out a weak host. Sometimes the guest is weak and must rely temporarily on a strong host. Usually the host has the advantageous position because he is familiar with the terrain and the local situation.
31. Use a Woman to Ensnare a Man
This stratagem advocates tempting a man sexually, as it can distract him from his duties.
32. Fling Open the Gates to the Empty City
If you are in a very weak situation, it is sometimes best to let the enemy know that – they might actually think it’s a trap and avoid attacking you.
33. Let the Enemy’s Own Spies Sow Discord in the Enemy Camp
Another stratagem based on espionage, it advocates that if you find someone spying against you, then you feed that person misinformation. Not only does this give the enemy inaccurate information, it gives you a better chance to exploit them.
34. Inflict Injury on Oneself to Win the Enemy’s Trust
This stratagem involves trying to deceive the opponent by gaining their trust – and a good way to achieve this is to make them believe you are hurt. “This stratagem rests on the proposition that people tend to feel sympathy for others who suffer misfortune,” Gao Yuan adds.
35. Chain Together the Enemy’s Warships
Enemies who are larger will experience difficulties because of that size. Look for ways to take advantage of this. “Chaining ships together means using schemes that will encumber the enemy with his own weight,” Gao Yuan notes. “When this is done successfully, the enemy ends up being his own worst enemy.”
36. Run Away
This would be considered a last-ditch strategy – retreating and saving oneself to fight another day is better than surrendering.
Lure the Tiger out of the Mountains: The 36 Stratagems of Ancient China, by Gao Yuan, was originally published by Simon and Schuster in 1991. You can still buy it on Amazon.com.
Top Image: Riders on horseback, from a wall painting in the tomb of Lou Rui at Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China, dated to the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577 AD) – Wikimedia Commons
A sixth-century essay reveals 36 ways to defeat an enemy.
Many readers will be familiar with The Art of War. Sun Tzu’s treatise, which roughly dates from the fifth century BC, is a guide to military strategy and is still read widely today. However, this text is one of many produced in China.
One of the most interesting military texts is the 36 Stratagems, an essay that seems to date back to the sixth century but was reworked and added to up to the 20th century. The essay explains these stratagems and offers examples from Chinese history to see how they played out in practice – these include events from ancient China, the Three Kingdoms period, and the Tang Dynasty.
Gao Yuan’s book, Lure the Tiger out of the Mountains: The 36 Stratagems of Ancient China, is a guide to this work, offering modern examples of how they can be used, especially in the world of business. With the help of Gao Yuan’s analysis, here are the 36 stratagems explained:
1. Cross the Sea by Fooling the Sky
The first stratagem advocates hiding things out in the open, for example allowing people to know where your forces will be. “This stratagem works because people expect secrets to be hidden,” Gao Yuan explains. “It is logical to think that such plans must be made and conducted in secrecy. Thus people tend to neglect open activities that hide underlying schemes.”
2. Besiege the Kingdom of Wei to Save the Kingdom of Zhao
This is the stratagem of indirect confrontation, which is better than a direct attack. Gao Yuan writes:
The stratagem of besieging Wei to save Zhao plays on the yin-yang relationship between directness and indirectness, concentration and division, and solidity and void. It may mean concentrating one’s forces to strike at the enemy’s weakest point, taking advantage of an opponent’s shortcomings, solving a problem by focusing on an aspect that seems tangential but is actually key, or deflecting a problem onto something or somebody else.
3. Kill with a Borrowed Knife
Gao Yuan explains this stratagem by writing “If you can cause or convince someone else to do a difficult job, you may save yourself a great deal of trouble. Borrowing a knife to kill means making use of others’ resources for one’s own gain.”
4. Relax while the enemy exhausts himself
There are times when you should rest and not engage an enemy. You can let them make their attacks as it will drain their strength.
5. Loot a Burning House
Attack an enemy that is already having troubles and misfortunes.
6. Make a Feint to the East While Attacking in the West
This is a stratagem that advocates diversionary tactics. Gao Yuan explains:
The underlying principle is similar to the rationale of Stratagem 1, crossing the sea by fooling the sky, because both emphasize substituting the unfamiliar or unexpected for the familiar or anticipated. However, the actual tactics suggested by these two stratagems are different: whereas crossing the sea plays on hiding secrets in the open, feinting to the east employs directional deception. In crossing the sea, one lulls the enemy into a state of sensory numbness so he won’t anticipate attack. In feinting to the east, one creates a false impression so the enemy will think the attack is coming from one place when in fact it is coming from another.
7. Create Something Out of Nothing
Even if you lack something, you can act as if you have it. Propaganda is a good example of this.
8. Pretend to Advance Down One Path While Sneaking Down Another
If you are doing covert actions, then also do public actions to convince your enemy that you have a different plan.
9. Watch the Fires Burning from Across the River
If your enemies are fighting amongst themselves, let them, and concentrate on your own plans. Gao Yuan offers this analysis of how it applied to late medieval Europe:
From the fifteenth century on, while the princes and republics of Central Europe were squabbling and carrying out schemes of aggrandizement against one another, the Western Europeans, particularly the Dutch, Scandinavians, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British, were extending their ambitions across the seas. Then while these powers contended over their overseas conquests, tsarist Russia expanded east.
10. Conceal a Dagger in a Smile
A particularly duplicitous stratagem, it suggests that one gains an enemy’s trust so you can betray them later.
11. Sacrifice a Plum Tree to Save a Peach Tree
Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to achieve victory. Gao Yuan explains:
The stratagem of sacrificing the plum tree for the peach tree plays on the yin-yang relationship between superiority and inferiority, strength and weakness, the overall situation and the local situation, and sacrifice and gain. It requires a careful balancing of partial benefit and overall benefit, as well as of short-term versus long-term returns.
12. Take the Opportunity to Pilfer a Goat
Take advantage of minor opportunities and mistakes your enemy makes, even if all you get out of it is a goat.
13. Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake
Gao Yuan explains this “stratagem plays on the yin-yang relationship between direct and indirect approaches to problems. Under some circumstances, beating around the bush works better than hitting home. By striking at an ancillary target, you can startle your enemy into divulging crucial secrets. Sometimes you can make your opponent believe that you are closing in, and he’ll more readily give himself up.”
14. Raise a Corpse from the Dead
Although not necessarily a corpse, it can be good to use people that you can control – especially those who are easy to manipulate.
15. Lure the Tiger out of the Mountain
It is better to let the enemy come to fight you than for you to go to the enemy.
16. Snag the Enemy by Letting him Off the Hook
Sometimes it’s better to let an opponent escape than corner them. Otherwise, the cornered opponent might fight very desperately. Also, by letting them go, it may make it easier to get them to surrender later.
17. Cast a Brick to Attract Jade
Offer your opponent something minor in hopes that it will lead you to get a bigger prize.
18. Catch the Ringleader First to Nab the Bandits
A classic stratagem: go after the enemy’s leadership. “The stratagem also suggests the more general principle that a force will dissipate when whatever holds it together— be it organization, charisma, or glue — is lost,” Gao Yuan adds. “As a Chinese saying goes, “When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.”
19. Steal the Firewood from under the Cauldron
One way of defeating an opponent is to take away their supplies.
20. Fish in Trouble Waters
When the whole world around you is facing its own difficulties, this is your time to act. Gao Yuan notes that “looting a burning house refers to taking advantage of an opponent’s particular adversities, while fishing in troubled waters means taking advantage of a general situation of confusion and chaos.”
21. Slough off the Cicada’s Shell
Pretend to be in one place while really being in another.
22. Shut the Door to Catch a Thief
Try to surround your enemy and give them no possible way of escaping.
23. Befriend a Distant State While Attacking a Neighbor
Do not go to war against enemies that are far away – concentrate on those closer to you, and with the ones further away, make alliances.
24. Obtain Safe Passage to Conquer the Kingdom of Guo
If you have two adversaries and one of them attacks the other, then it would be a good idea to come to the aid of the one being attacked.
25. Replace the Beams and Pillars with Rotten Timber
This is a slower strategy requiring patience – find ways to replace supplies or personnel with something inferior (or better yet, something that will help you).
26. Point at the Mulberry but Curse the Locust
Gao Yuan explains that “this stratagem advocates the use of admonitions, scare tactics, clubs, or whatever means necessary to warn, frighten, or beat others into compliance. Essentially, it is a strategy of negative reinforcement. By pointing at the mulberry and cursing the locust, the weak can be cowed and the strong convinced.”
27. Play Dumb while Remaining Smart
If you are strong, pretend to be weak.
28. Pull Down the Ladder after the Ascent
Find a way to lure an enemy into a trap. This is most successful when the enemy has no avenue to escape.
29. Deck the Tree with Bogus Blossoms
Essentially make something look better than it actually is.
30. Make the Host and the Guest Exchange Places
A defender often has the advantage of knowing their own terrain. Look for ways to make them fight on terrain that benefits you. Gao Yuan adds:
In Chinese military terminology, one who ventures out of his own territory to fight is the “guest” and one who defends his own territory, the “host.” The relations between guest and host may be of varying types. Sometimes the guest is in a strong position, invited to help out a weak host. Sometimes the guest is weak and must rely temporarily on a strong host. Usually the host has the advantageous position because he is familiar with the terrain and the local situation.
31. Use a Woman to Ensnare a Man
This stratagem advocates tempting a man sexually, as it can distract him from his duties.
32. Fling Open the Gates to the Empty City
If you are in a very weak situation, it is sometimes best to let the enemy know that – they might actually think it’s a trap and avoid attacking you.
33. Let the Enemy’s Own Spies Sow Discord in the Enemy Camp
Another stratagem based on espionage, it advocates that if you find someone spying against you, then you feed that person misinformation. Not only does this give the enemy inaccurate information, it gives you a better chance to exploit them.
34. Inflict Injury on Oneself to Win the Enemy’s Trust
This stratagem involves trying to deceive the opponent by gaining their trust – and a good way to achieve this is to make them believe you are hurt. “This stratagem rests on the proposition that people tend to feel sympathy for others who suffer misfortune,” Gao Yuan adds.
35. Chain Together the Enemy’s Warships
Enemies who are larger will experience difficulties because of that size. Look for ways to take advantage of this. “Chaining ships together means using schemes that will encumber the enemy with his own weight,” Gao Yuan notes. “When this is done successfully, the enemy ends up being his own worst enemy.”
36. Run Away
This would be considered a last-ditch strategy – retreating and saving oneself to fight another day is better than surrendering.
Top Image: Riders on horseback, from a wall painting in the tomb of Lou Rui at Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China, dated to the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577 AD) – Wikimedia Commons
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