三十六计
1. 瞒天过海
Cheat the sky and get through the ocean.
Produce deceiving phenomena to hide your real intentions to mislead the enemy while carrying out your real mission safely and without being found.
2. 围魏救赵
Encircle the Wei to save the Zhao.
The Qi nation wanted to rescue the Zhao nation, which was being attacked heavily by the enemy country Wei. Sun-Pin, the Qi king’s adviser and brilliant strategist, decided that instead of sending an army to the Zhao to fight the Wei army, he sent an army to encircle the Wei’s weakly guarded capital city because Wei sent most of its forces to attack the Zhao. This placed the Wei in an extremely difficult position, and the Wei had no choice but to withdraw their army back home to save its capital.
The point is to avoid unnecessarily huge confrontation by attacking the weak point.
3. 借刀杀人
Borrow someone’s knife to kill your enemy.
If your enemy has another enemy other than you, try to use/persuade the “other enemy” to defeat your enemy. An economic and efficient method.
4. 以逸待劳
Rest and wait for the attack, for the enemy will be exhausted when they arrive.
Unless you are considerably stronger than your enemy, taking a defensive stance usually gives you a better chance of winning; the charging enemy will be expending much more energy than you.
5. 趁火打劫
When the house is on fire, it’s good time to loot.
When your enemy is in crisis or chaos, attack!
6. 声东击西
Make noise to the east until you have the enemy’s attention; then attack on the west.
Diversions are a widely used military tactic with many examples.
7. 无中生有
Produce something out of nothing.
This is usually referring to spreading rumors and propaganda. It can be very powerful and costs very little. Rumors and word of mouth can kill. Take for example the fall of Tiger Woods. (Of course, he deserves it.)
8. 明修俴道，暗渡陈仓
Openly pave a road appearing to prepare the attack, then sneak through the other road “Chen-Chang” to attack.
Liu-Ban, who established the Han Dynasty, was going to attack his enemy Sian-Yu from Shi-Chuan province. In order to fool the enemy, he openly began the lengthy construction of a road from Shi-Chuan to the outside to ostensibly prepare for the attack. Secretly, he swiftly attacked Sian-Yu from the other secret road Chen-Chang.
9. 隔岸观火
Watch the fire from the other side of the river with ease.
When there is crisis or the situation is chaotic or complicated, you may want to choose not to be involved and take a distant stance, waiting for your chance.
10. 笑里藏刀
In the smile, a knife is hidden.
Truly evil people will be smiling at you while thinking of ways to ruin you.
An example is
11. 小不忍则乱大谋
If you can’t swallow the little things when the situation calls for it, you will disrupt the master plan.
A life is meaningful when you have a mission, a goal to fight for. To achieve your long term goal, at times you have to tolerate dislikes and swallow the unbearable. If you have a real passion for your mission, you can do it! “大丈夫能曲能伸”
“A great man is able to curl up as well as strike out” is another way to say it.
12. 13. 打草惊蛇
Beat the bush to lure out the snake.
Understanding your enemy or rival is important. Sometimes you must provoke your enemy so that he will act, and you learn your enemy’s intention. The better you understand your enemy, the better chance you have of defeating him.
14, 15. 调虎离山
Make the tiger leave his mountain.
When tiger is in his mountain, he is powerful. But if he is in an alley, he loses power and can be mocked by even a dog. One way to defeat your enemy is to make him leave the ideal environment and he will be in an unfavorable situation.
16. 欲擒故纵
In order to catch him, let him drop his guard.
Tricky people in power often play this trick. They pretend to be very agreeable, easy going and negligent while they’re actually watching your wrongdoings. Then they will be able to use the evidence to ruin you.
17. 18. 擒贼擒王
To destroy the gang, seize their leader.
The enemy’s leader is the most critical member you must eliminate in order to dissolve your enemies.
19. 釜底抽薪
Instead of putting out the fire on the stove, take away the wood burning underneath.
To defeat your enemy, don’t engage in direct confrontation; take away the enemy’s power or the underlying mechanism that makes him powerful.
20. 混水摸鱼
Catch the fish when the water is cloudy.
Chaotic and disastrous situations are not always bad for an intelligent person. Take advantage of the situation when everybody is confused and too busy or negligent in order to get what you want.
21. 金蝉脱壳
The golden beetle sheds its shell to flee.
This idiom is often used to describe someone who is secretly working on escaping by keeping his appearance unchanged on the surface to hide his intention of escaping.
23. 远交近攻
Make friends from far away to put pressure on enemies nearby.
A famous strategy used repeatedly by many nations. For example, when
26. 指桑骂楑
Point your finger at the Suan plant to subtly curse the Kuai plant.
A political and diplomatic trick. You appear to be criticizing one person when everyone knows you are actually criticizing another.
27. 假痴不癫
Fake insanity.
During 春秋战国，孙膑 was persecuted by his own jealous schoolmate 庞涓 in many different ways. He was trapped in the country Wei. Eventually he used his last trick: pretend to become completely insane. He performed so well that he convinced 庞涓 that he was indeed insane, and 庞涓 no longer kept an eye on him. He got a chance to escape the country Wei, and 孙膑 later became a brilliant military adviser for the Qi king and defeated 庞涓。
28. 过河拆桥
After you cross the river, destroy the bridge.
Militarily, this was a tactic to prevent the enemy from dogging your tracks. In practice, this describes some people who can be so mean so as to finish using you and then sell you out.
31. 美人计
The Beautiful Woman Tactic.
So many heroes in history could conquer anything but could not conquer the temptation of beautiful women.
During 春秋战国，the king of 越国 (very weak) bribed the king of 吴国 (very strong) with three things: 1) the most beautiful woman in Chinese history 西施，2) the biggest and tallest tree on earth as a gift to 吴国 for the king to build the largest mansion on earth (which consume all his counry’s raw materials), and 3) cooked rice seeds to the Wu nation which had a poor harvest and no seeds for next season. As a result, the Wu nation was without food, materials, or a capable king. With these 3 simple tricks, 越国 made 吴国 weak and conquered it the following year.
32. 空城计
The
In 三国时代，诸葛亮 was famous for taking a lot of very smart and calculated risks. In
诸葛亮 happened to have very small number of soldiers with him surveying a small town, and 司马懿，曹操’s general, was nearby and learned of his situation. The general’s army outnumbered诸葛亮’s enormously and surrounded the town. At the risk of certain death, 诸葛亮ordered to have all the gates of the town flung open wide and all the people and soldiers to be calm, sweeping floors and buying and selling at the market as usual. 诸葛亮sat upon the top of the wall of the front gate, playing the 古筝 with remarkable serenity and beauty. 司马懿 immediately became very suspicious and believed there was an ambush in the town waiting for his army. He knew that诸葛亮 rarely took chances and was a very careful tactician and had thus lost many battles to him. The general hurriedly ordered an immediate retreat, and诸葛亮 slipped out of the city, laughing, and escaped with his life.
33. 反间计
Make the enemy turn on each other.
For example, in 三国时代，周瑜 warmly entertained the messenger from 曹操. 周瑜pretended to be very drunk and invited the messenger to his own bedroom to rest. The messenger thought this was his chance and found a letter in周瑜’s desk from 曹操’s two best naval generals. The letter revealed that the two generals were plotting to kill曹操. The messenger snuck back to曹操’s camp the same night with the letter in hand. After learning of the plot, 曹操recalled that these two generals had surrendered to him in an earlier battle and may be disloyal to him yet. 曹操 was infuriated and killed the two generals. Little did he know that the letter was a fake set-up by 周瑜 and that he had executed his two loyal and most important naval generals. This directly contributed to曹操’s humiliating defeat at the 赤壁大战。
36. 走为上计
The Final Tactic: run for your life.
At times in your life, there may be situations in which you lay out all the options and none are good. Escaping the whole situation or going away becomes the best choice.
