The 36 Strategies: #27, Be Wise But Play the Fool

Next the The Art of War by Sun Tzu, the 36 Strategies in the mostly widely known collection of strategic thought. The 36 Strategies seeks to impart the art of strategic thinking through 36 maxims. Even if you are not now planning on seeking world domination, it pays to learn about strategic thinking so that you are aware and can take steps when someone is attempting to apply a strategy against you.

#27 is Be Wise, but Play the Fool. In short, appear less than you are so that your opponents underestimate you. If your opponents don’t take you seriously, you have great freedom to act.

In literature, the most widely known example of this strategy can be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet. On the death of his father, Prince Hamlet exaggerated the extent of his mourning to the point of feigning madness in order to throw off his enemies. First, this was a strategy of survival, as he wasn’t quite sure who was indeed his enemy and who was not. Secondly, this provided him a cover under which he plotted taking action on his own.

In history, the most widely known example may be the story of The 47 Ronin. The retainers of Lord Asano, who had been wrongfully forced to commit suicide scattered all over Japan apparently leading lives of dissipation in order to lull the object of their hatred, Lord Kira, into complacency. They gave up their families and homes. After some years passed, Lord Kira came to believe that the former retainers of Asano no longer represented a danger to him.

It was then on a snowy winter night, that the 47 followers of Lord Asano gathered to extract their revenge.

The 36 Strategies: #26 Point at One to Scold Anohter

Next to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, the 36 Strategies is probably the world's best known classic on the art of strategy. Where the Art of War is really a methodic overview of the whole subject of strategic thought, The 36 Strategies attempts to teach by giving 36 specific maxims. Here is #26.

26. Point at one to scold another

You criticize indirecly, getting your point across without confrontation.

This can be applied more widely. If you make an example of A, you can send a message to B. This is a way to confront powerful rivals indirectly, lessening the chance of an accidental outright conflict.

When the Mongols were sweeping through Asia, any city that resisted them would be obliterated. The city would be razed and the all the citizens would be executed. Word of this spread quickly. Fewer and fewer cities put up any resistence. It made more sense to simply join them.

The other side of this is that the intended recipient of the message must be aware enough of what's going on to take the meaning of a message being delivered to someone else. This implies a certain degree of sophistocation and awareness among all the parties involved.

The 36 Strategies: #25 Steal a Beam to Replace a Pillar

Before getting to #25, Let's review where we are so far. If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to a website which lists all 36 strategies and gives examples from ancient times.

ONE: Stratagems When Commanding Superiority

Strategy 1 - Cross the sea by fooling the sky (Man tian guo hai)

A familiar sight provokes no attention - Chinese Proverb

Secrets Often hide in the open. In fact, the more obvious a situation seems, the more profound the secrets it may hide.

People tend to ignore the familiar. This is the principle behind the stratagem of crossing the sea by fooling the sky.

Strategy 2 -Besiege the kingdom of Wei to save the kingdom of Zhao (Wei wei jiu zhao)

He who knows the art of the direct and indirect approach will b victorious. Such is the art of maneuvering.

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

To assault a strong and cohesive enemy head-on is to invite disaster. The stratagem of besieging the kingdom of Wei to save the kingdom of Zhao advocates indirect confrontation

Strategy 3 -Kill with a borrowed Knife (Jie dao sha ren)

If you want to do something, make your opponent do it for you. - Chinese Military Principle

Strategy 4 -Relax while the enemy exhausts himself (Yiyi dai lao)

The female overcomes the male with stillness. - Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 5 -Loot a burning house (Chen huo da jie)

An enemy with troubles at home is ripe for the conquest - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 6 -Make a feint to the east while attacking in the west (Sheng dong ji xi)

The commander who knows how to attack makes his enemy not know where to defend

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

TWO: Stratagems For Confrontation

Strategy 7 -Create something out of nothing (Wu zhong sheng you)

Everything in the universe is created from something, which in turn is created from nothing

- Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 8 -Pretend to take one path while sneaking down another (An du chen cang)

Attack succeeds where the enemy neglects defense - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 9 -Watch the fires burning across the river (Gean guan huo)

A clam was sunbathing with its shell open when a crane came along and pecked at its flesh. The clam snapped shut, catching the crane's long beak. Niether would yeild to the other. Finally a fisherman came by and caught both of them - Chinese Fable

Strategy 10 -Conceal a dagger in a smile (Xiao lo cang dao)

The man with honey on his lips hides murder in his heart - Chinese Saying

Strategy 11 -Sacrifice the plum tree for the peach tree (Li dai tao jiang)

A Peach tree grows beside the well; A plum tree takes root by it side. When worms invade the peach tree's base, The plum tree is sacrificed - Chinese Folk Song

Strategy 12 -Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat (Shun shou qian yang)

Many grains of sand piled up a pagoda makes - Chinese Saying

THREE: Stratagems For Attack

Strategy 13 - Beat the grass to startle the snake (Da cao jing she)

One can win without a fight - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 14 -Raise a corpse from the dead (Jei shi huan hun)

If you lack the proper title, people won't listen to you; and if they don't listen, your orders won't be carried out - Confucius

Strategy 15 -Lure the tiger out of the mountain (Diao hu li shan)

Good opportunities are not as important as favorable terrain - Mencius

Strategy 16 -Snag the enemy by letting him off the hook (Yu qin gu zong)

To seize something, one must first thoroughly endow it - Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 17 -Cast a brick to attract jade (Pao zhuan yin yu)
T

he kingdom of Jin wanted to attack the kingdom of Chouyou, but there was no direct route. So Jin cast a great bronze bel as a gift for Chouyou. Chouyou biult a road to transport the gift from Jin, and then Jin troops came down the road and conquered Chouyou. - Chinese Tale

Strategy 18 -Catch the ringleader to nab the bandits (Qin Zei qin wang)

Choose a strong one when using bows, Take the long ones when choosing arrows; To shoot people, first fell their steeds, To nab bandits, catch the one who leads - Tang dynasty poet Du Fu

FOUR: Stratagems For Confused Situations

Strategy 19 -Steal the firewood from under the cualdron (Fu di chou xin)

To get rid of weeds, dig up the roots; To stop a pot from boiling, withdraw the fuel - Chinese Proverb

Strategy 20 -Fish in troubled waters (Hun shui mo yu)

Wild times create heroes - Chinese Proverb

Strategy 21 -Slough off the cicada's shell (Jin chan tuo qiao)

Misleading the enemy be false appaerance - this is what strategy is all about - 100 Ways of Warring (Baizhan Qilue)

Strategy 22 -Shut the door to catch the thief (Guan men zhuo zei)

One desperado on the run can scare off one thousand men - Warring States Strategist Wu Qi

Strategy 23 -Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbor(Yuan jiao jin gong)

People with different dreams can share the same bed - Chinese Saying

Strategy 24 -Obtain safe passage to conquer the Kingdom of Guo (Jia dao fa guo)

Without the lips, the teeth will be cold - Chinese Idiom

Which brings us to Stratagems for Gaining Ground. The first of these is #25:

Steal a Beam to Replace a Pillar.

One interpretation is:

You try to recruit top talent, inducing them to join your concern. This both strengthens your side, and denies the talent to others.This has to do with strengthening your own position at the cost of your rivals.

In my business, we frequently employ this strategy in the form of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). If a competitor has a press release pertaining to a different market segment, I might play this up to a buyer we are both trying to sell to as having grave consequences in our segment. If I can get him sufficiently agitated, he's going to call my competitor on the carpet, and ask him to explain himself. My competitor is therefore stuck trying to explain his company's position, which may well be benign, while I can go ahead and promote my own goods and services.

Years ago, I won a nice piece of business with a customer, offering a product they wanted at a very competitive price for the general market. They had an incumbent supplier who had a monopoly position there, and taken advantage of it. The prices they were giving this customer was no where near as low as the market priced.

By my just showing up and winning this one program, the incumbent literally spent years having to reduce prices everywhere within this customer, redrawing forecasts for their internal planning, etc. It caused them a great deal of trouble, where in the mean time, my company was able to advance our agenda.

The 36 Strategies: # 24 Borrow the right of way to attack the neighbor

The 36 Strategies: # 24 Borrow the right of way to attack the neighbor

You secure the temporary use of another party's facilities in order to move against a mutual enemy. After having used these facilities to prevail over the enemy, you then turn and use them against the party from whom you borrowed them.

This is really kind of cold blooded, and it’s just the sort of thing that you don’t want to happen to you.

The examples from old Chinese wars used for this strategy usually discuss a situation where A is at war with B. A has an ally C, from whom A borrows some valuable resource to finish off B. However, in lending A the resource, C becomes weaker, and A takes advantage of the situation to take over C as well.

In much simpler terms that we can relate to in a modern setting, imagine a co worker asking you to some sort of work as a favor. He then uses the work to advance himself …at your expense.

The 36 Strategies: #23 Make allies at a distance, attack nearby

Second only to the Art of War, by Sun Zi (Sun Tsu), The 36 Strategies is the most widely know book on the topic. The 36 Strategies is a set of 36 maxims, from which strategic thinking is taught. It behooves us to learn strategy, if only to recognize when someone is attempting to use a strategy on us, out of defense.

Below is #23.

23. Make allies at a distance, attack nearby

When you are more vulnerable to those close by than you are to those far away, you can defend yourself by keeping those around you off balance, in the meantime cutting off their field of maneuver by securing a broader ring of alliances surrounding them.

There is a bit of the yin yang aspect here. Fight your nearby enemies by making allies at a distance. Consider the positin of Great Britain during WWII after their army had been run off of the continent of Europe by Germany.

Their distant ally, the US, allowed them to rearm. The US opened another front in Africa, and then Italy, which split the Germany forces.

The 36 Strategies: #22 Shut the Door to Catch a Thief

One of the Chinese Classics on Strategy is The Thirty Six Strategies. It is second only to the famous Art of War by Sun Tzu. Where Sun Tzu is an overview of the entire topic of Strategy, the 36 Strategies attempts to teach strategic thinking by way of 36 examples.

What follows first, is an excerpt from the Answers.com page on the Thirty Six Strategies, followed by #22. If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to the full page from Answers.com.

The name of the collection comes from the Book of Qi, in its seventh biographical volume, Biography of Wáng Jìngzé (王敬則傳) ^[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. When Wáng received news that the Marquess of Donghun, son of Emperor Ming, had escaped in haste after learning of the rebellion, he commented that "檀公三十六策，走是上計，汝父子唯應急走耳", which can be translated literally as "of the thirty-six strategies 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 strategies 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 strategies 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 Strategies 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 prevailaing view is that the Thirty-Six Strategies may have originated in both written and oral history, with many different versions compiled by different authors throughout Chinese history ^[3].

22. Shut the door to catch the thief (Traditional Chinese: 關門捉賊; Simplified Chinese: 关门捉贼; pinyin: Guān mén zhōu zéi)

• If you have the chance to completely capture the enemy then you should do so thereby bringing the battle or war to a quick and lasting conclusion. To allow your enemy to escape plants the seeds for future conflict. But if they succeed in escaping, be wary of giving chase.

It should be remembered that the first 18 strategies have to do with offense, and the second 18, with defense; broadly speaking.

If you don't catch the thief before he escapes, and give chase, you must be careful not to leave your home unguarded, lest the thief's companion plunders your undefended home.

The 36 Strategies: #21 The Gold Cicada Molts It's Shell

21. The gold cicada molts it's shell

This means leaving behind false appearances created for strategic purposes. Like the cicada shell, the facade remains intact, but the real action is now elsewhere.

A famous example of this strategy comes from the D-Day operation during WWII. The Germans were convinved that the US General Patton would be the leader of the invasion forces.

The allies set up a fake army, to be led by Patton. False communications were on the radio waves. German spys took pictures of fake tanks. A whole army was fabricated.

The D-Day invasion succeeded, in part, because the German Army thought the invasion was feint, with the real invasion, to be led by Patton, would take place elsewhere.

The 36 Strategies: #20 Stir up the waters to catch fish

Next the to the Art of War by Sun Tzu, the 36 Strategies is the most widely known book on strategy in China. We are taking them in order. Here is #20.

20. Stir up the waters to catch fish.

You use confusion to your advantage, to take what you want. It may specifically mean taking advantage of a general or particular loss of direction in order to gather followers from among the uncommitted or disenfranchised.

During the Cold War, both the US and SOviets would probe each other's defenses, and listen to the radio traffic that ensued, to determine how their opposite would respond to a real attack.

The 36 Strategies: #19 Take Firewood Out From Under the Pot

We've covered half of the 36 strategies, before moving ahead, let's review.


The First Group of Six: Stratagems When Commanding Superiority


Strategy 1 - Cross the sea by fooling the sky (Man tian guo hai)
A familiar sight provokes no attention - Chinese Proverb

Secrets Often hide in the open. In fact, the more obvious a situation seems, the more profound the secrets it may hide.

People tend to ignore the familiar. This is the principle behind the stratagem of crossing the sea by fooling the sky.


Strategy 2 -Besiege the kingdom of Wei to save the kingdom of Zhao (Wei wei jiu zhao)
He who knows the art of the direct and indirect approach will b victorious.
Such is the art of maneuvering. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War


Strategy 3 -Kill with a borrowed Kife (Jie dao sha ren)
If you want to do something, make your opponent do it for you. - Chinese Military Principle

Strategy 4 -Relax while the enemy exhausts himself (Yiyi dai lao)
The female overcomes the male with stillness. - Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 5 -Loot a burning house (Chen huo da jie)
An enemy with troubles at home is ripe for the conquest - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 6 -Make a feint to the east while attacking in the west (Sheng dong ji xi)
The commander who knows how to attack makes his enemy not know where to defend - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The Second Group of Six: Stratagems For Confrontation

Strategy 7 -Create something out of nothing (Wu zhong sheng you)
Everything in the universe is created from something, which in turn is created from nothing - Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 8 -Pretend to take one path while sneaking down another (An du chen cang)
Attack succeeds where the enemy neglects defense - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 9 -Watch the fires burning across the river (Gean guan huo)
A clam was sunbathing with its shell open when a crane came along and pecked at its flesh. The clam snapped shut, catching the crane's long beak. Neither would yeild to the other. Finally a fisherman came by and cought both of them - Chinese Fable

Strategy 10 -Conceal a dagger in a smile (Xiao lo cang dao)
The man with honey on his lips hides murder in his heart - Chinese Saying

Strategy 11 -Sacrifice the plum tree for the peach tree (Li dai tao jiang)
A Peach tree grows beside the well; A plum tree takes root by it side. When worms invade the peach tree's base,
The plum tree is sacrificed - Chinese Folk Song

Strategy 12 -Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat (Shun shou qian yang)
Many grains of sand piled up a pagoda make - Chinese Saying

The Third Group of Six: Stratagems For Attack


Strategy 13 - Beat the grass to startle the snake (Da cao jing she)
One can win without a fight - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Strategy 14 -Raise a corpse from the dead (Jei shi huan hun)
If you lack the proper title, people won't listen to you; and if they don't isten , your orders won't be carried out - Confucius

Strategy 15 -Lure the tiger out of the mountain (Diao hu li shan)
Good opportunitie are not as important as favorable terrain - Mencius

Strategy 16 -Snag the enemy by letting him off the hook (Yu qin gu zong)
To seize something, one must first thoroughly endow it - Lao Zi, The Way of Power

Strategy 17 -Cast a brick to attract jade (Pao zhuan yin yu)
The kingdom of Jin wanted to attack the kingdom of Chouyou, but there was no direct route. So Jin cast a great bronze bell as a gift for Chouyou. Chouyou biult a road to transport the gift from Jin, and then Jin troops came down the road and conquered Chouyou. - Chinese Tale

Strategy 18 -Catch the ringleader to nab the bandits (Qin Zei qin wang)
Choose a strong one when using bows, Take the long ones when choosing arrows; To shoot people, first fell their steeds, To nab bandits, catch the one who leads - Tang dynasty poet Du Fu

Now we begin the Fourth Group of Six with #19, Steal the firewood from under the cualdron (Fu di chou xin)

To get rid of weeds, dig up the roots; To stop a pot from boiling, withdraw the fuel - Chinese Proverb

When you cannot handle an adversary in a head on confrontation, you can still win by undermining the enemy's resources and morale. The is really a key concept in the theory of strategy.

The 36 Strategies: #18 To capture the brigands, capture their king

Next to the Art of War, by Sun Zi (Sun Tzu), the 36 Strategies is the mostly widely known book on strategy in Asia. Most asians are familiar with them at some level. It's important to understand them, if only so you can recognize when someone is trying to use a strategy on you.

18. To capture the brigands, capture their king

When confronted with a massive opposition, you take aim at it's central leadership.

... aka "cutting off the head of the dragon." Take out the leadership, and keep doing it. The second in line, and maybe even the third or the fourth, might be able to effectively take over the reins of leadership, but sooner or later the "brigand king" will find himself over his head.

In the classic book on the American Civil War, Lee's Lieutenants, the central premise is an investigation into the chronic problems of the South revolving around a crisis of leadership in it's armed forces - they really had no system to effectively train officers and groom them for leadership positions. As their leaders died or were otherwise incapacitated, they had to be replaced by others who were less and less capable.

The "brigand king" doesn't necessarily have to be killed, but neutralized, forced to resign or step down, or otherwise rendered ineffective.

The 36 Strategies: #17 Toss out a glazed tile to draw a jade

Next to the Art of War by Sun Zi, the 36 Strategies is the most widely known work on strategy in Asia. Where the Art of War plainly lays out the major topics to be considered in discussing strategy, the 36 Strategies attempts to teach by induction, by giving 36 examples, in groups of six. Here is #17.

17. Toss out a glazed tile to draw a jade

You present something of superficial or apparent worth to induce another party to produce something of real worth.


The classic bait and switch comes to mind as an example of #17. This strategy is the basis of countless cons. It is almost human nature to try and get something for nothing (or very little).

How many times have you encountered something too good to be true, and you were right? That's a case of recognising #17.

I thought I'd take the opportunity now to provide some links to books which discuss the 36 Strategies. This is by no means comprehensive, but should provide a good place to start, when looking for more information on The 36 Strategies.

The Art of the Advantage by Kaihan Krippendorf
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587991683/sr=8-1/qid=1155350757/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5126729-6987229?ie=UTF8

The 36 Strategies by Stefan Verstappen
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0835126420/ref=pd_sim_b_3/002-5126729-6987229?ie=UTF8


More Than 36 Stratagems: A Systematic Classification Based On Basic Behaviours
by Douglas Tung
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412006740/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/002-5126729-6987229?ie=UTF8

36 Strategies of the Chinese by Wee Chow Hou
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9812358323/ref=wl_it_dp/002-5126729-6987229?%5Fencoding=UTF8&colid=3LT9O1ZF7Z9W&coliid=I1U1SIS8MSPG2X&v=glance&n=283155

Enjoy!

The 36 Strategies: #16: When you want to take captives, leave them on the loose for a while.

Next to The Art of War by Sun Zi, the 36 Strategies is most widely known book of strategic thought. It is a good idea to understand strategy, if for no other reason, to recognize when someone is trying to implement a strategy on you. Here is number 16.

16. When you want to take captives, leave them on the loose for a while.

Fleeing enemies may turn again and strike desperately if pursued too hotly. If they are given room to run, on the other hand, they scatter and lose their energy. Then they can be taken captive without further violence.

In other words, it may be advantageous to allow the opponent to thrash around a bit before making one's move. There is no need to be in an unneccesary hurry.

The 36 Strategies: #15. Train a tiger to leave the mountains

The 36 Strategies are almost as famous as Sun 's Art of War. Where the AoW tries to lay out the landscape of strategic thought, the 36 Stategies is a pithy way of hitting the highlights by way of teaching by example. Not many of us are going to be plotting corporate takeovers, but chances are that someone is going to do something that is going to influence you, try to get you to do something, or otherwise impact you. It's important to be able to recognize strategies while they are in the making when they are directed at you.

You don't go into the fastness of a powerful opponents' territory, but induce them to come out of their stronghold.

The meaning of this strategy is to not mess with someone what he is in a position of power. You have to draw him out to where he'll be exposed and vunerable. There are many ways to do this, which includes others from the 36 Strategies. You can appeal to greed, by putting something of apparant value out in the open as bait. You can use fear, by threatening something the tiger hold dear. The key point is to get the opponent to leave safety of his own power base.

The 36 Stategies: #14 Borrow a corpse to bring back a spirit

14. Borrow a corpse to bring back a spirit

You don't use what everyone else is using, but use what others aren't using. This can mean reviving something that has dropped out of use through neglect, or finding uses for things that had hitherto been ignored or considered useless.

It's not too hard to come up with some modern examples of this strategy. In recent times, the Detroit Tigers baseball club has been simply terrible. One of the reasons had been that the talent pool in their minor league farm clubs had dried up. What the franchise needed was time. They needed to keep getting people to watch games while the pipeline of talent began to refill.

"Borrow a corpse to bring back a spirit" was one of the reasons the Tigers brought in an inexperienced manager who happened to be a beloved member of the 1984 World Series team, Alan Trammel. By making that link to the past glory years, the Tiger's regained some goodwill with the local fans.

In the end, Trammel was fired. He had served his purpose though. Fans continued to come to the games. The pipeline has been refilled. A new manager with much greater experience is in place, and the Tigers today have much better prospects.

The 36 Strategies: #13 Beat the grass to startle the snakes

The first six strategies were for situations in which you hold an advantage, whatever it may be:

1. Sneak across an ocean in broad daylight
2. Surround one state to save another
3. Borrow a sword to kill another
4. Face the weary in a condition of ease
5. Plunge into a fire to pull off a robbery
6. Feint east, strike west

The next six strategies are opportunistic in nature:

7. Make something from nothing
8. Cross the pass in the dark
9. Watch the fire from the opposite band of the river
10. Have a sword in a smile
11. One tree falls for another
12 Take the sheep in hand as you go along

These next six are offensive in nature.

13. Beat the grass to startle the snakes

You want to provoke your opponent into a response. There was a famous story of some burglars who ransacked a well to do neighborhood years ago. Over a period of months, on different days of the week and different times of the day, they'd deliberatedly set off burglar alarms.

They were doing experiments and taking measurements. They were seeing how long it would take to respond, and what form that response would take. Once they understood their environment, they robbed several houses, and were smart enough to quit when the responses began to change.

Well, almost. Greed got the better of them, and after a (too) brief lull, they hit the neighborhood again and got caught.

The 36 Strategies: #12 Take the sheep in hand as you go along

Next to the Art of War, by Sun Tzu (or SunZi), probably the next best known Chinese book on strategy is the 36 Strategies. Here is #12.

12 Take the sheep in hand as you go along

You take advatange of any opportunity, however small, and avail yourself to any profit, however slight. This comes from the story of a destitute traveler walking on a road. As he went along, he came across a flock of sheep; making his way through them, when he emerged from their midst he had a sheep with him. He behaved so calmly and naturally, as if he had been leading his own sheep to market all along, that the shepherd never noticed him.

The 36 Strategies: #10 Have a Sword in a Smile.

Second only to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, the 36 Strategies have shaped Asian thought. It's important to study strategy if only from the viewpoint of being able to recognise when someone is trying to manipulate you.

Here is a good article that give an overview of the entire 36 Strategies:

The Pragmatic View, A Pragmatic View of the 36 Strategems.
http://cardinal009.blogspot.com/

... and now to #10. An all too common one that we might find used against us.

10. Have a sword in a smile

You ingratiate yourself with enemies, inducing them to trust you. When you have their confidence, you can move against them in secret.

The 36 Strategies: #9: Watch the fire from the opposite band of the river

Next to the Art of War by Sun Tzu, the 36 Strategies is the most famous compliation in the study of strategy in Asia. It would be wise to have an understanding of these strategies, just so you might be able to recognise when someone is attempting to use them on you!

#9. Watch the fire from the opposite band of the river

You calmly look on when adversaries experience internal troubles, waiting for them to destroy themselves.

We really are our own worst enemies. If we can patiently wait, and not make our own mistakes, we can almost certainly count on our opponents to make theirs. Very often a conflict is resolved in favor to the side that makes the next to the last mistake.

The 36 Strategies: #8 Cross the pass in the dark

The 36 Strategies is second only to the Art of War by Sun Tzu (or Sun Zi). The strategies are important to understand if only as a matter of defense when someone is trying to manipulate you, or situations which may not be to your benefit.

#8. Cross the pass in the dark

You set up a false front, then penetrate the opponent's territory on other fronts while they are distracted by your false front.

I have a little story that comes from work for this one.

The company that was my main competitor had a monopoly at Customer A (and charged them outrageously high prices), and was the major player at Customer B.

We won some business at Customer B, and were making proposals for more. What my competitor saw of us, was that we were making a major play for business at Customer B, and we were both fully engaged there.

What they didn't see was that we found some sympathetic engineers and buyers at Customer A, who realized that they weren't being served well by my competitor.We quietly worked on a major proposal, under the radar screen, without the competitor knowing what was going on.

We won a major program. We won it with a product comparable to what our competitor was selling for 1/2 the price. Overnight, to try and keep us out, they tried dropping their price to meet us.

Purchasing wanted to know how they could drop the price. Were they being over charged on all the products (they were). Prices were being slashed left and right. Revenue from this account took a nose dive. Forecasts had to be changed.

We caused years of trouble for that competitor. It was a body blow from which it took years to recover.

The 36 Strategies: #7 Create Something From Nothing

The first six of the 36 strategies had to do with your being in a position of strength. The next six, strategies #7 through 16, have to do with confrontation.

#7: Create Something From Nothing

You create a false idea in the mind of the opponent, and fix it in his mind as a reality. In partricular, this means that you convey the impression that you have what you do not, to the end that you may appear formidable and thus actually obtain a security that you had not enjoyed before.