The 36 Strategies: #31 Scheme with Beauties

Next to Sun Tzu's Art of War, the 36 Strategies is the most widely known book on strategy in Asia. Were the Art of War is a methodical overview of the topic, the 36 Strategies attempts to teach the habit of strategic thinking by way of 36 maxims, divided into 6 groups of 6 maxims.

Strategy is important to learn, if only for the defensive aspect; recognizing when someone is trying to hatch a strategy that will not be to your benefit.

Here is a link to an online version of the 36 Strategies.

Strategies 1 though 6: Strategies when commanding superiority
Strategies 7 through 12: Strategies for confrontation
Strategies 13 through 18: Strategies for attack
Strategies 19 through 24: Strategies for confused situations
Strategies 25 through 30: Strategies for gaining ground
Strategies 31 through 36: Strategies for desparate straits.

Strategy #31: Scheme with Beauties. It hardly needs any explanation, does it? I think it would probably work as well with either sex.

Here's a story off the top of my head. During the Olympics in China, a British diplomat found himself to be the object of attention of a beautiful Chinese woman. After drinking way too much, they spent the night together. When he awoke, she was gone ... and so was his Blackberry, which contained a lot of sensitive information.

There is a story from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms., about one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, one Diao Chan.

According to the novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Diao Chan assisted the official Wang Yun in a plot to persuade the warrior Lü Bu to kill his adopted father, the tyrannical warlord Dong Zhuo. She did this by becoming Dong Zhuo's concubine but also Lü Bu's betrothed, then manipulating the two through their jealousy and her charm. Dong Zhuo's tactician, Li Ru, saw that the dancing girl was driving both the lord and the warrior mad, so he proposed that Dong Zhuo give Diao Chan to Lü Bu instead of fighting over her. Upon hearing this he threatened Li Ru with death and stated that no warrior was worth what Diao Chan was to him. Diao Chan had Lü Bu wrapped around her finger.

She told him that being with Dong Zhuo made her unhappy and wished to only be with him. Lü Bu was outraged and went to Wang Yun to plot Dong Zhuo's death. Lü Bu had to escape shortly after killing Dong Zhuo and he lost a battle to Dong Zhuo's generals. He did, however, meet up with Diao Chan once more. Diao Chan followed Lü Bu during his time as a rogue leader until he took Cao Cao's castle of Puyang. Together they were married and traveled the land until Lü Bu was later killed when Cao Cao's forces overran his base at Xiapi. There is no mention of Diao Chan in the novel after this.