Thirty-Six Stratagems

Appendix: The Art of War

Important application: In order to deal with something or against someone or some people, you may need to use a stratagem among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, then please Silently thinking about it, if the thinking want to be breaked, then stop and click here to Pray a plan from God.

Detailed version of the Chinese(中文用户请点击这里使用中文详细完整版)

Chapter 1 Winning Stratagems	Chapter 2 Enemy Dealing Stratagems	Chapter 3 Attacking Stratagems	Chapter 4 Chaos Stratagems	Chapter 5 Proximate Stratagems	Chapter 6 Defeat Stratagems
The First Stratagem Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean	The Seventh Stratagem Create something from nothing	The 13th Stratagem Stomp the grass to scare the snake	The 19th Stratagem Remove the firewood from under the pot	The 25th Stratagem Replace the beams with rotten timbers	The 31th Stratagem The beauty trap (honey trap)
The Second Stratagem Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào	The Eightth Stratagem Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang	The 14th Stratagem Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul	The 20th Stratagem Catch a fish while the water is disturbed	The 26th Stratagem Point at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust tree	The 32th Stratagem The empty fort strategy
The Third Stratagem Kill with a borrowed knife	The Nineth Stratagem Watch the fires burning across the river	The 15thStratagem Entice the tiger to leave its mountain lair	The 21th Stratagem Slough off the cicada's golden shell	The 27th Stratagem Feign madness but keep your balance	The 33th Stratagem Let the enemy's own spy sow discord in the enemy camp
The Fourth Stratagem Leisurely await for the laboured	The Tenth Stratagem Hide a knife behind a smile	The 16thStratagem In order to capture, one must let loose	The 22th Stratagem Shut the door to catch the thief	The 28th Stratagem Remove the ladder when the enemy has ascended to the roof	The 34th Stratagem Inflict injury on oneself to win the enemy's trust
The Fifth Stratagem Loot a burning house	The 11th Stratagem Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree	The 17th Stratagem Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem	The 23th Stratagem Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbour	The 29th Stratagem Deck the tree with false blossoms	The 35th Stratagem Chain stratagems
The Sixth Stratagem Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west	The 12th Stratagem Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat	The 18thStratagem Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief	The 24th Stratagem Obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo	The 30th Stratagem Make the host and the guest exchange roles	The 36th Stratagem If everything else fails, retreat

Origin
The name of the collection comes from the Book of Qi, in its seventh biographical volume, Biography of Wáng Jìngzé.[1] Wáng was a general who had served Southern Qi since the first Emperor Gao of the dynasty. When Emperor Ming came to power and executed many members of the court and royal family for fear that they would threaten his reign, Wáng believed that he would be targeted next and rebelled. As Wáng received news that Xiao Baojuan, son and crown prince of Emperor Ming, had escaped in haste after learning of the rebellion, he commented that "of the thirty-six stratagems of Lord Tán, retreat was his best, you father and son should run for sure". Lord Tán here refers to general Tan Daoji of the Liu Song Dynasty, who was forced to retreat after his failed attack on Northern Wei, and Wáng mentioned his name in contempt as an example of cowardice.[2]

It should be noted that the number thirty-six was used by Wáng as a figure of speech in this context, and is meant to denote numerous stratagems instead of any specific number. Wáng's choice of this term was in reference to the I Ching, where six is the number of Yin that shared many characteristics with the dark schemes involved in military strategy. As thirty-six is the square of six, it therefore acted as a metaphor for numerous strategies.[2] Since Wáng was not referring to any thirty-six specific stratagems however, the thirty-six proverbs and their connection to military strategies and tactics are likely to have been created after the fact, with the collection only borrowing its name from Wáng's saying.[3]

The Thirty-Six Stratagems have variably been attributed to Sun Tzu from the Spring and Autumn Period of China, or Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period, but neither are regarded as the true author by historians. Instead, the prevailing view is that the Thirty-Six Stratagems may have originated in both written and oral history, with many different versions compiled by different authors throughout Chinese history. Some stratagems reference occurrences in the time of Sun Bin, approx. 150 years after Sun Wu's death.[3]

The original hand-copied paperback that is the basis of the current version was believed to have been discovered in China's Shaanxi province, of an unknown date and author, and put into print by a local publisher in 1941. The Thirty-Six Stratagems only came to the public's attention after a review of it was published in the Chinese Communist Party's Guangming Daily newspaper on September 16, 1961. It was subsequently reprinted and distributed with growing popularity.[3]

[edit] Thirty-Six Stratagems
The Thirty-Six Stratagems are divided into a preface, six chapters containing six stratagems each, and an afterword that was incomplete with missing text. The first three chapters generally describe tactics for use in advantageous situations, whereas the last three chapters contain stratagems that are more suitable for disadvantageous situations. The original text of the Thirty-Six Stratagems has a laconic style that is common to Classical Chinese. Each proverb is accompanied by a short comment, no longer than a sentence or two, that explains how said proverb is applicable to military tactics. These 36 Chinese proverbs are related to 36 battle scenarios in Chinese history and folklore, predominantly of the Warring States Period and the Three Kingdoms Period.