Stratagems 1-6: Commanding Superiority

MAN TIAN GUO HAI.

Cross the sea by fooling the sky.
Prov: A familiar sight provokes not attention.

WEI WEI JIU ZHAO.

Besiege the Kingdom of Wei to save the
Kingdom of Zhao.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': The art of the direct and the
indirect approach. Such is the art of maneuvering. He who
understands such will be victorious.

JEI DAO SHA REN.

Kill with a borrowed knife.
Chinese military principle: Make your opponent do it for
you.

YI YI DAI LAO.
Relax while the enemy exhausts himself.
Lao Zi 'The Way of Power': The Female overcomes the
male with stillness.

CHEN HUO DA JEI.

Loot a burning house.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': An enemy with troubles at home is
ripe for conquest.

SHENG DONG JI XI.

Make a feint to the East while attacking the
West.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': Make the enemy not know where
to defend.

stratagems 7-12: For Confrontation

WU ZHONG SHENG YOU

Create something out of nothing.
 AN DU CHEN CHANG
Pretend to take one path. Sneak down another.

GE AN GUAN HO
Watch the fires burning across the water.
Story: A clam sunbathed with its shell open. A crane came by and pecked at its
flesh.
The clam snapped shut on the crane's beak. A fisherman came by and captured
both

XIAO LI CANG DAO

Conceal a dagger with a smile.
Prov: The man with honey on his lips hides murder in his heart.

LI DAI TAO JIANG

Sacrifice the plum for the peach.

SHUN SHOU QIAN YANG

Take the oppertunity to pilfer a goat.
Prov: From one grain of sand a pagoda begins.

stratagems 13-18: For Attack

DA CAO JING SHE
Beat the grass to startle the
snake.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': One can win without
a fight.

JIE SHI HUAN HUN

Raise a corpse from the dead.
Aides dressed the Generals corpse in
finest battledress and lashed the body
to his favouritehorse. Later, his troops
followed the stead and thier 'invincable'
leader straight through enemy ranks

DIAO HU LI SHAN
Lure the Tiger out of the
Mountain.
Mencius: "Good oppertunities are not
as important as favorable terrain.
 YU QIN GU ZONG
Snag the enemy by letting him off
the hook.
Lao zi 'The Way of Power': To sieze
something, One must first thoroughly endow
it.
 
PAO ZHUAN YIN YU
Cast a brick to attract a turtle.
The white army had no road to invade the
black, so they called for t of reconciliation.
Blacks made a road to transport the gift
home. This was whites invasion. plan

QIN ZEI QUN WANG

Catch

stratagems 19-24: In Confused Situations

 

FU DI CHOU XIN
Steal the firewood from under the couldron.

HUN SHUI MO YU
Fish in troubled waters.
Prov: Wild times create heros.

JIN CHAN TUO QIAO

Slough off the cicada shell.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': Mislead the enemy with false
appearances.

GUAN MEN ZHUO ZIE

Shut the door to catch the thief.
Wu Qi-strategiest: One desperado on the run can scare a
thousand men.

YUAN JIAO JIN GONG

Befriend a distant state, attack a neighbour.
Prov: People with different dreams can share the same
bed.
 JIA DAO FA GUO
Obtain safe passage to conqure.
Prov: Without lips, the teeth will be cold.

stratagems 25-30: For Gaining Ground

 

TOU LIANG HUAN ZHU

Replace the beams and pillars with rotten
timber.

JIA CHI BU DIAN

Play dumb, remain smart.

ZHI SANG MA HUAI

Point at the mulberry and curse the locust.
Prov: Kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

SHANG WU CHOU TI
Pull down the ladder after ascent.
Cortez burnt his ships on arriving in Mexico to prevent his
men from returning home. They then had two choices -
conqure or perish. They conqured.

SHU SHANG KAI HUA

Deck the tree with bogus blossom.
Emperor Yangdi orderd the populus to put false blossom
on every tree in the land to impress visiting rich merchants.
Today the media is the main tool of properganda.

FAN KE WEI ZHU

Make the guest and host change places.
In Chinese millitary terms one who leaves his territory to
fight is the guest.

stratagems 31-36: In Desperate Straits

 

 
 MEI REN JI
Use a woman to ensnare a man.
Prov: No man can break through the Pass of Beauties.
A woman can trade information for moonlight.

KONG CHENG JI
Throw open the gates of the empty city.
When almost all is lost, show this to the enemy. Avoid total
destruction and "live to fight another day".

FAN JIAN JI
Let the enemys own spy sow discord.
A dieing General left reward in his Will to high rank
members of the opposition. When this disloyality was
discovered the recipients were executed. . The Will - and
the death of the General was false

KU ROU JI
Inflict injury upon oneself to gain trust.
People tend to feel sympathy toward those who suffer
'misfortune'.

LIAN HUAN JI
Chain togrther the eneys warships.
Prov: Retreat can cause chaos.

ZOU WEI SHANG

If a battle cannot be won, don't fight it.
Sun Zi 'The Art of War': Tempororily yeild to the mighty