Deciphering the 36 Chinese Stratagems: Some Findings on the Circular Frame of Reference

By Alexander Goldstein

To realise the causes of a great rejuvenation of the Chinese civilization started with the new sixty-year cycle in 1984, we need to have recourse to an inescapable problem of inheritance and further development of cultural traditions in China. In this book the 36 stratagems and their overall characteristics are discussed within the framework of canonical macro and microstructure put through the 'image and numbers' study, the circular and linear arrangements built on the basis of Chinese strategic thinking and stratagemical thoughts. In the next following Book II entitled "The Strategic Thinking and Stratagemical Thoughts in China," which is going to be released in a month from now, the subject of our interest is the business negotiation process and the so-called "Chinese-style Management," as well as the problem of decision-making based on the historical background and systematic guidelines contributed by the sages of old in the form of idiomatically expressed stratagemical thoughts.
In the context of modern globalization, the 36 Chinese stratagems highlight the comparative advantage of Chinese attitude towards management with "ancient wisdom." This book adopts the structural research of "The Thirty-six Stratagems" as a canonical work that has received wide recognition of international experts in the field of strategic psychology and management. Methods adopted in this book include linguistic analysis, inductive and deductive reasoning relied on the canonical patterns; the termed by the book's author the Mortar-Pestle modelling is discussed in detail.
Chinese stratagems represent a collection of some of the most subtle and as it seems to be the most counterintuitive (but it is only on the face of it) precepts on strategic and tactical operations worked out and developed in old China through the past three millenniums. Covering the fields of politics, diplomacy, espionage and business activities, they reflect the human nature in all implicit respects and light up the remotest corners of mind.
There are some striking similarities between "The Thirty-six Stratagems" written by unknown author(s) sometime on the edge of the Ming and Qing dynasties (17th century) and the guiding principles of the "Zhou Yi" (The Book of Circular Changes), as far as both works on strategic thinking strive to derive solutions for difficult problem-solving by maximizing a total benefit and minimizing costs and harmful side effects. In this edition, the 36 stratagems are described in detail with comparisons of the Zhou Yi's invertible and non-invertible diagrams put into different numeric structures of the circular arrangement. A strategy generation and its successful implementation in advantageous and disadvantageous circumstances are viewed from the standpoint of six warfare categories. Applications of the stratagems in management areas are also discussed through similarities and differences in the strategic psychology in China and in the West.
The book is enriched in dozens of charts and diagrams to invite the reader to master the strategic thinking in traditionally Chinese way to know oneself much better. It is difficult to know oneself if one does not know others; when wanting to know others, first start with yourself. As is said, "if you know the opponent and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Therefore, the devoted reader will find this fascinating journey in the realm of stratagemical thoughts as a doubly valued in theoretical and practical perspectives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Goldstein
• Release date: Apr 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311697868

Alexander Goldstein

Alexander Goldstein, a graduate of the Far-Eastern University in Sinology, lived and worked in mainland China for a period as a translator/interpreter, a manager, and a martial arts' practitioner. A certified instructor of ‘Chang-quan’ (external-style boxing) and ‘Taiji-quan’ (internal-style boxing), he is a lecturer of Chinese culture and traditions at the Open University in Tel-Aviv. He also is the author of Lao-zi's "Dao-De Jing," Chan (Zen) masters' paradoxes, "The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taiji-quan," a Chinese novel and some other editions, which are available in print and electronic publishing at most online retailers published in English, Spanish and Russian. What makes his books so appealing is profound analysis and authority with which various strains of the vigorous Chinese culture are woven into a clear and useful piece of guidance for a business person who conducts the affairs with far-eastern counterparties and for a counsellor who develops strategies that enable leaders to position their organisations effectively.

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Deciphering the 36 Chinese Stratagems:

Some Findings on the Circular Frame of Reference

Published by Alexander Goldstein

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Copyright 2015 Alexander Goldstein

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Contents

Author's Notes

Introduction

Part One: Theoretical Background of Chinese Stratagems

Chapter 1: The Image Thinking and Structural Analysis

Chapter 2: Research Methodology and Structural Units

Chapter 3: To the Problem of Categorization

Part Two: Historical Background of Chinese Stratagems

Chapter 1: Historical Opportunity of The Thirty-six Stratagems as the Shortest Text on the Military Affairs

Chapter 2: The Chinese Stratagems as a Resonance for ‘Ancient Wisdom’

Chapter 3: The Process and Some Models of a Strategy Generation and Implementation

Part Three: The Circular Arrangements of the 36 Stratagems

Chapter 1: The Thirty-six Stratagems as a Prototype of the Zhou Yi's Inner Structure

Chapter 2: A Portrait of an Eminent Strategist of Antiquity

Chapter 3: Nine Songs of the 36 Stratagems Arranged According to the Circular Patterns

About the Author

Endnote

Author's Notes

To realize the causes of great rejuvenation of the Chinese civilization, which, as a fact, has started with the new sixty-year cycle in 1984, in six years after officially proclaimed reforms, we need to have recourse to an inescapable problem of inheritance and further development of cultural traditions in China. It is no coincidence that in 1984 Chinese archaeologists unearthed in Wanqiu, the province of Henan, an ancient capital which is considered as the residence of the legendary forefather of Chinese civilization by the name of Fu Bao (Fu Xi). That summer someone caught a white tortoise in a pond at the ancient site of Fu Xi’s place. The pond was called the White Tortoise Pond because legend holds that Fu Xi had seen a white tortoise in the pond with a pattern of dots similar to that on the He-tu diagram. Thus, the new epoch of modernity has been marked and declared in the best traditions of Chinese rites.

In this book the problem of 36 stratagems and their characteristics is discussed within the framework of macro- and microstructure, as well as strategic thinking in general and stratagemical thoughts, revealed through the study of circular patterns and models of great antiquity. Thereupon, Chinese style of business negotiation and Chinese way of management, in which decision-making and problem-solving are based on historical background and system guiding principles contributed by the sages of old, are the subjects of intent consideration in the next following book entitled Ancient Wisdom, Management and Negotiations in China.

In the context of accelerated globalization, the 36 stratagems highlight comparative advantage of Chinese attitude towards management with adaptation of ‘ancient wisdom’ for modern environments. This edition exercises the structural research of concise Classic entitled The Thirty-six Stratagems, which has received wide recognition of international experts in the field of military strategies and psychological war, as well as on Chinese management and business negotiation implemented through strategic thinking worked out in the Central Kingdom from time immemorial. Adopted here research methods include elemental analysis, inductive proving and deductive reasoning based on classical modelling. Developed on the circular and linear constructive principles, this research consists of five methodological aspects which explain self-sufficiency of the total number of Chinese stratagems, their ability for introspection and pairing according to fixed enumeration, result-oriented characteristics, classification and textual criticism. After some data inquiry, I preliminary conclude that scholarship in the West is not yet gotten around to carry out a systematic research of Chinese stratagemical thoughts. On the one part, Chinese strategic principles are designated by thoughtful observers and analysts who proceed from Sun-zi’s doctrine of warfare and the 36 stratagems in their idiomatic expression; on the other part, no compelling cultural explanation of them is provided in western literature. No previous works go beyond various exemplary strategies and tactics to answer the fundamental for Chinese culture question: What is the glue that holds together all business principles of Chinese statesmen and entrepreneurs?

This book is an attempt to throw light on Chinese stratagems from the viewpoint of their overall characteristics, system structure and strategic thinking. It will bring, I hope, a double effect in the field of strategic development on its theoretical background and practical benefits. Some parts of it are dedicated to the anthropological study, which is also the result of my long-term experience in communicating with the Oriental people. Some findings of this study are directed to the future; they could lay a good foundation for all those who are interested in mastering conceptually the stratagemical thoughts, putting them into practice on the level of intercultural and international communications, promoting Chinese stratagems as an operable armament for achieving success.

Generally speaking, Chinese stratagems represent a collection of the most subtle and, as it seems to be, counter-intuitive (but it’s only on the face of it) precepts on strategies and tactical operations developed in China throughout the past three millenniums, covering the fields of politics, diplomacy, espionage and bargained activities. There are some striking similarities among the 36 stratagems completed by unknown author(s) some time on the edge of the Ming and Qing dynasties (17th century), as some experts believe, and the Zhou Yi’s 36 diagrams also known as the figures (gua) of the Book of Circular Changes. Both sources of ‘ancient wisdom,’ despite interaural time difference of their composing, have been worked out on strategic thinking of many generations in deriving proper solutions for different problems by maximizing a total benefit by minimizing costs and harmful side effects. Hence, the 36 stratagems are described here in detail parallels with the Zhou Yi's hexagrams put into different numbering (geometrical) constitutions to produce strategically correct decisions in various situations with advantageous and disadvantageous environmental terms.

The stratagem applications in modern management and negotiating process are also discussed through similarities and differences in the strategic psychology and stratagemical thoughts adopted both in China and in the West. Sometimes a stratagem in its idiomatic form records a whole event or told a story. Here, an intent look at the 36 stratagems is taken from the viewpoint of the Chinese people’s psychology in order to determine their (stratagems’) constructive features in historical perspective.

In fact, what we know today about Chinese stratagems has been translated by some Old School Sinologists who were trained to translate by seeking equivalents in Chinese-Western language dictionaries instead of any conceptual attitude. This is the reason why, regarding Chinese stratagems, we have mostly gotten the terms 'cheating,' 'deception,' 'fraud' and similar definitions formulated through the Occidental point of view. I have intentionally not named ‘the first water scholars’ or their main points. The reason for this is that different branches of Old School give different interpretations based on the same non-conceptual platform. Inasmuch as men's opinions differ, so there must be differing ideas on the same matter. Thus, no one scholar's conception is valid to any school’s vision of the doctrine; hence only some general tendencies have been shown.

It is not a secret that there is a huge distance between the Oriental and Occidental mentality and my task is to make it a little bit shorter. Language does not extend to explaining both ways of thinking in detail, but it can be grasped intuitively. Contemplating the stratagems is like reading the Classics; we study a word by word, a phrase or a paragraph then ponder on each one. If we interpret the meaning loosely, we mistake the way of stratagemical thoughts. It is a state of mind that belongs to the borderland of truth and falsehood, where truth and falsehood are idiomatically and poetically mixed, as in an afternoon dreamer's tale. If we look at the stratagems from an honest viewpoint, we can notice that the folks, their true authors, have always tended to become concerned with strength (li) in both large and small matters; hence, there is no inner meaning in the stratagemical attitudes. If we know how to operate with them, we know; if not, we don’t know how to exploit them. This means that we have eventually a good potential to know then. For this, we must simply keep our spirit clean to perceive and realize the art of strategic operations; that’s simple.

The stratagems have been further broken down into itemized parts to indicate what is called ‘the structural figuring,’ roughly, the text's division into numerological patterns and geometrical symbols of three: Heaven, Earth and Man. For the most part, this figuring is not a part of textual parsing either, but a matter of logical conversion, according to which the number three consists of the Yin and Yang’s alternation. As a result, perhaps dozens of idioms, which have been poorly understood in both Chinese and English versions, have been cleared up here not by ingenious and intricate analysis of the idiomatic texture, but through enforcement of numerological simplicity integrated into the macrostructure laid beyond the parsing, as well as systematization of its overcomplicated speculations. It should still be understood that there is a cost. There are a lot of places where I could have departed from objectivity, not too far, and make the translation sound more fluent. However, I could not sacrifice the meaning for that. That has been done enough already by many others.

Modern theories of human behaviours can be always found in ancient records. Machiavelli of Roman Empire and Sun-zi of the Springs and Autumns period's China, as an instance, are two most famous strategists in the world history. We can always find their wisdom applicable to the modern events. Believing that ‘ancient wisdom’ is still invaluable nowadays, on the following pages I have attempted to review ancient philosophical thought with a modern view to summarize what I have learned from Chinese treatise on the military affairs under the joint title Bing shu (Collection of Military Classics). Instead of reviewing Machiavelli or Sun-zi who focused on the military and governing practice, I have chosen to review one of the wittiest folk precepts known as the 36 Chinese stratagems.

Again, my apologies to serious scholars for I retranslate the stratagem explanations and historical anecdotes so that they would be clearer to the Western readers. Any mistakes and errors are my own. I also added opening quotes from other Oriental works on strategy, as well as on statecraft. As a result, this book is not a direct translation, nor a list of historical facts around Chinese stratagems, but rather a retelling of some psychological patterns on more specifically military lore. If the reader merely brushes through this book, he or she will not reach the way of strategic thinking. One should absorb the things written on these pages; not just read and memorize, but try to realize the stratagemical principles from within, absorbing these things into the body.

The present edition obtains some inspirations derived from existing researches conducted by, most of all, the Chinese scholars on the military strategy, including the ‘moral’ aspect of the issue, as well as on detailed analysis of strategic deduction, as well as the mechanism of strategy generation and implementation. Therefore, the main emphasis is laid on macro and microstructure of the stratagem body text and strategic thinking to cover some white spots in this field.

By this, I invite every diligent reader to make a fascinating voyage together, entering into the realm of images and numbers, and reveal a conceptual understanding of Chinese stratagemical thoughts. To assimilate strategic thinking is to adjust mentality, and the reader of this can do it oneself because everyone is one’s own master. Of course, I would be indebted to alert everyone for corrections of expounded material.

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to a number of colleagues and friends for various assistances, from commenting on and correcting my manuscript to warm encouragement and valuable guidelines. Most of all, I have to thank Gennady Gewohntmacher for his technical support over a lengthy period of time. In no order of preference, the others are: Dr. Zhang Zhi-bing, Li Hong, Gao Min-kai, Eric Blacksmith and Steve Song, with whom this project began and without whom none of what follows would have been written.

--A.G.

Written on the third day of the second lunar month of the cyclical year Yi-wei

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Introduction

About the Book’s Structure

As a quintessence of China’s cultural inheritance, the stratagemical thought with its inherent features to be discussed in the first part can be boiled down to the following five overall characteristics, which are: (1) thinking compatibility of opposed notions implemented according to the Mortar-pestle modelling (MPM); (2) fixed ordinal positions; (3) conciseness of expression (idiomatical phrases consisted of binominals as stratagemical elements); (4) structural modularity of integration arranged in the form of categorization; and (5) openness to variability that unites them all and keeps together as a whole system. All the five go through practical feedback to be united within the framework of the algorithm ‘two levels of two forms of the unity of opposites.’ Such feedback is possible only within the framework of system openness to variability and reformation, obtaining a status of complete and self-contained system. Traditionally, such sort of self-sufficient systems is called ‘Chinese culture,’ the main specialization of which is to cope with myriad things with love (an attribute of Heaven), absorbing all and everything within its thousand-year-old ‘stomach’ and providing, as it could seem curiously enough, development space for the future generations in concert with ‘ancient wisdom.’ Regarding the cultural space between Heaven and Earth equipped with its civilized function of making people different from animals, a sage of great antiquity by the name of Lao-zi (580-?? BCE) inquired: May not it be compared to a pair of bellows? And he answered himself, saying, It’s empty, yet never exhausted—the more it moves the more comes out of it. Then he added: It is not so with a man: the more he rends the air with his words the swifter he becomes exhausted. Truly, it’s never as good as to stick to quiet within the mind (Dao-De Jing, Verse 5).

Having a status of Classic on warfare, The Thirty-six Stratagems, however, cannot be utilized as a guidebook of strategy generation itself. It is not about the way how to generate a good strategy but what to do in the course of its implementation in order to avoid numerous ‘hidden rocks.’ The strategy is different from other things in that if you mistake your way even a little, with time you will become bewildered and fall into deviation. In fact, all stratagems can raise lots of ideas how to lay further strategic designs and tactical schemes, depending on favourable or unfavourable circumstances. Caused by limited space of this edition, there is no way to expound all results of the research done by rational element separation; therefore, I just set forth a few methods which have been used in the course of elemental analysis and sorting. In addition, the canonical structure on the macro and micro-level is discussed in detail. Also, some other findings are revealed of the microstructure, including the strategy objectives and their main components, stratagem environmental factors, strategic guidelines and operational means integrated into the overall system by virtue of its categorization. The fact that the stratagems are sorted per six categories speaks of a certain completeness of the cognitive system they serve for. The six categories equal to ‘six kinds of energy manifestation’ (liu-qi), such as victorious, defensive, offensive, workaround, coalition leadership and defeatist. Each one out of six, with its in-house set of six stratagems, represents six stages of situational development within a complete cycle of warfare according to the formula ‘victory-defeat-final victory.’

According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), there are six kinds of environmental energy: wind, cold, warm, moisture, dry and heat. There are five sorts of activities represented by emblematic images of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Putting the inner and outer conditions together, we can achieve the higher level of knowledge and experience. In the Xü-gua it is said: There are Heaven and Earth (stage one); then come all things; there are all things, then come the male and female (stage two); there are the male and female, then come husband and wife (stage three); there are husband and wife, then come father and son (stage four); there are father and son, then come master and servant, ruler and subordinate (stage five); there are a ruler and an official, then come those who are above and those who are below (stage six); there are those who are above and those who are below, then come ritual and justice to be observed duly. The Zhou Yi suggests the evolutional transmission from Taiji to Taiji, going through the following six stages: Tai-ji (Ultimate Extremes) — Liang-yi (Two Forms) — Si-xiang (Four Images) — Ba-gua (Eight Trigrams) — Liushisi-gua (64 Hexagrams) — Wuji (None-Extremes) — Taiji (Ultimate Extremes). From the mathematical point of view, the Zhou Yi’s formula of Tai-ji in growing to the state of the eight trigrams is termed ‘geometric progression of one for two.’ This means that each item pairs with a previous one to make a common ratio of the geometric series. So, one multiplies up to two; two to four; four to eight; eight to sixteen; sixteen to thirty-two; thirty-two to sixty-four to return from the infinite number to one. Four images beget the eight trigrams because two sorts of elementary lines, divided and undivided, can be combined with three kinds of grouping to make the formula 2³=8. Master Zhu Xi (1130-1200) says: This is all about ‘one for two ratio’ which is repeated at every next level to have no limits at all, because all and everything submits to the principle ‘one begets two (one and its opposite). Hence, we say that the generation and its accomplishment (sheng-cheng) can be considered as the true source of all things with their unlimited transformations. In principle, if generation may be represented as the round, accomplishment denotes a result of the round operation and its successful rolling. For this, the only thing you have to do is to establish an operational procedure and the overall configuration will eventually take the round form of perfection. This is the reason why the Tai-ji diagram has perfectly round shape within and outside. At making your position invulnerably round, even Heaven on high may climb down while Earth in the lower region can climb up. Once upon a time, Duke of Zhou asked Shang Gao: Where the numbers come from? The great master replied: The numbers come from the round and square. The round derives from the square while the square comes from a huge square, which is so big that cannot be distinguished from the round. The question is still there: Is it possible by studying the 36 stratagem structure to reveal the mechanism of coupling them at a higher level of systematic knowledge? In this book, a close attention is paid to the point of drawing a parallel between the Thirty-six Stratagems and the 36 invertible and non-invertible diagrams of the Zhou Yi. This question leads to another no less important question of the relationship between the 36 stratagems allocated to their fixed odd and even-numbered ordinal positions within the framework of this short but classically composed guidebook on Chinese stratagems. To solve this problem we have to go over the macrostructure with its overall characteristics of the body text. It is to be concluded that the macro and microstructure of the stratagems match quite well; therefore, there is no need for amendment in the extant enumeration or ordinal rearrangement of them.

On the base of theoretical research stipulated in the first part, definition of the macrostructure and some other valuable results are obtained in the second part, including the 'Six Character Serpentine Coil.' Relying on the competitive results of macrostructure, we discuss the circular system structures carried out thereby and extended from two viewpoints: one roots in its 'big circle' or external arrangement and another in the 'small circle,' including its core subject, environments, guidelines and meanings integrated into its formation as a completely sufficient system. Some interesting conclusions are made about holistic approach, like the six character principles (two triangles) as a dynamic system that contains the eight-character (two squares) systematic principles bound together by the algorithm of the number five (correlation of Centre) formulated as two levels of two forms of the unity of opposites, and by the aid of which we can grasp the inner structure of The Thirty-six Stratagems.

In the third part, we encounter the problems related to Chinese strategic thinking (CST) and the focus is put on the circular patterns of stratagemical thoughts, in general. There are some attractive conclusions, such as a series of practical strategic templates worked out and developed on the base of classical modelling and peeled off from various historical precedents and examples, as well as some other moments, such as the nine principles of stratagemical thoughts and their system orientations, related to the strategic systematization with Chinese characteristics. Theoretically, this study is based on research of the 36 stratagemical precepts built up to support the theory of ‘mental model’ in order to fill the room that still remains between a strategy developing and mental modelling.

Strategic psychology has always been a subject of military training; besides, politicians and entrepreneurs are very much concerned about the problem. In the sense, Sun-zi’s The Art of War can hardly be overestimated; it is a true model of praise for studying Chinese stratagems from the view of the strategic psychology.

At present, there are some research and discussions published about Chinese stratagems, but none of them bears systematic characteristics from the psychological point of view. The book tries to make a contribution in revealing the ruse of psychological war and also cover the white spots on the vast chart of psychology research. In this connection, the discussed in the following ebook stratagems’ overall characteristics, the linear structure, as well as stratagemical thoughts with respect to studying Chinese enterprise’s management and traditional decision-making will have certain theoretical significance and practical value. What’s more important is the fact that, whether in the modern enterprise management or in war, the 36 stratagems widely use the classical patterns of strategic thinking worked out and developed by the ancients throughout the ages.

The following ebook entitled Ancient Wisdom, Management and Negotiations in China is devoted to discussion of the stratagem usage at the Chinese type enterprise observed through the contribution of traditional decision-making and Chinese approach to business negotiation.

To sum up, this and the following two ebooks provide a new perspective for all those who are interested in exercising and further cultivating strategic wisdom on Chinese soil. Therefore, what is described in the following pages will directly or indirectly affect their decision-making and their business conduct in mainland China.

About Translation of Researched Materials

Despite their broad popularity among people all over the world, it is not a secret that the guidebook entitled The Thirty-six Stratagems is a difficult subject to read, and even more so to translate, because every word in its body text contains an image. It is this difficulty in clearly understanding idiomatic and semi-idiomatic texts that have suggested the need to pay greater attention to the structure of Chinese archaic texts; they can often consist of reasonably clear individual words, stable binominals (bi-graphs) or parallel phrases. Yet in many places the meaning of the phrases, and then the units composed of those phrases, is frustratingly difficult to comprehend. When reading we can often let difficulties slip by, especially since we are able to keep ambiguities in our minds until they gradually disappear as they are either resolved or replaced by new ones. The translator of the stratagems must make a very definite decision about depicting each one separately and in structural combinations with others. To this end, there are the aids of correlative patterns, as well as the most general contribution of individual experience. In the analytical work that follows, an imagery rendering is perhaps only one of several possible classical schemes and old patterns. The overall guideline for making this translation has been assigned by adherence to the principles of the Zhou Yi's structure (configuration of the Book of Circular Changes speaks for itself), as far as the translator is able to determine them. Why I insist on using the term Circular Changes? It’s because changing is a continuous undulating process by definition; it is a progressive, spiral (which is a combination of the earthly square and heavenly round) and evolutionary advancement represented by the archaic graph ‘zhou.’ When changes proceed beyond their extremes, they alternate to their opposites. Then a new cycle begins, running around time and again.

In the overall configuration of the 36 stratagems there are three kinds of undulating changing processes: one is shorter which goes on from one precept to another within a set of six guidelines; another is longer and wavelike process which goes on from a stratagem of one category to another responded stratagem of the opposed category. The third, the longest wavelike process, that goes on from one category to another, combining all the six categories into three responded pairs.

In traditional linear arrangement, the body text of the 36 stratagems is punctuated only to the degree that the categories break it up per six four- and three-character aphorisms in each one. The effect of this minimal structuring can be quite influential. Once naturally broken at the points of its six categories, the body text consisted of 138 characters (plus 18 (3x6) characters of the categories’ names) possesses some more textual information. This certainly gives us a notion of how to read them appropriately.

Methodology, according to which the ancients produced their associations with the figures and lines images, is difficult to reveal precisely. Therefore, today some people consider such images and their associations as superstition. However, it is obvious that, as the Xi-ci Zhuan tells us, A certain arrangement of the eight trigrams contains images within it. Truly, to get an image means to express the matter in full. For this, first we have to make an arrangement of figures, second contemplate their images and then read commentaries to them to realize how the Zhou Yi’s structural principles work.

In reading Chinese Classics, the archaic language is no longer native to anyone; the abbreviated condensed aphoristic structure (at a higher level) must sometimes be carefully expanded since their compactness can render them unintelligible to us, now 'the foreign speakers.’ The reading process requires that we make many decisions especially regarding aphorisms and idiomatic expressions. This is probably more important in translation than in individual reading because even in our native language we usually take only a vague impression along with us of the structure of a unit as we read it. When translating we are forced to look more closely at structures and to make clear the relations we discern between the units of those structures. Deciding how a structure is constituted, we determine how to present that structure in translation. To make that structure known we need to have an elemental approach to determining its build-up, so that our analysis of its effect on meaning, that is, how we read the units, can be justified insofar as the structure plays a part above the level of a unit (aphorism) itself.

This work is an attempt to analyse the stratagemical thoughts and to look at their language in the light of many examples from classical texts and, first of all, from the Zhou Yi (The Book of Circular Changes), Lao-zi's Dao-De Jing, ''Guigu-zi, Meng-zi, Sun-zi bing fa (The Art of War as Stated by Sun Wu), Lun yu (The Analects of Confucius), Zhou li (The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty), Lüshi chun-qiu (Master Lü’s Springs and Autumns), Yang Xiong's Tai-Xuan Jing (The Canon of Grand Triad) and some other primary sources. As the most familiar examples of a sort, which are canonical treatises of the military literature in China under joint name Bing shu that might be best represented by works of the Seven Military Classics" (wu jing qi shu) compiled and dated back to the Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties. Later texts show the appearance of narrative and even logical continuities, but with a marked tendency in many cases to revert to the ancient texts through oral speculations as continuation of the puzzling non-narrative and non-logical features of the mentioned above earliest writings.

Written in metrical language with rhyme, the Chinese stratagems are divisible into sections whose relationship to one another is like that of the poems one finds in a long poetic sequence. The language of them is concise and elusive. Conventional poetic figures, such as simile, metaphor, symbol and analogy are employed frequently; parts of the text represent traditional sayings. The individual categories are argued as aphoristic poems would be. But the stratagems are also 'poetic' in a larger sense in what we might call the collection of wisdom. This wisdom is embodied in its poetic language, rhetoric and structure.

Remarks made by the stratagem researchers throughout the second half of the last century have often been helpful but, as is frequently the case with texts so difficult for interpretation, they have often been contradictory as well. At these points and some others, the translator has chosen his own, probably unique, resolution of the problem, putting the body text into the frame of the closed 'xiang-shu' (images-and-numbers) doctrine.

As it has been mentioned above, this book explores methodology and rationale of structural analysis from the viewpoint of traditional Chinese culture (TCC) as presented in Confucian and Daoist Classics. It utilizes the inherent theory of image thinking so much characteristic of the Chinese nation in terms of archaic textual traditions. It should also be said here that ‘image thinking’ emphasizes on emotion, as it is based on correlative system, not realistic, to be mostly romantic, like a freehand brushwork of Chinese calligraphy and ink painting; hence a great number of Classics, Romances and poetic traditions of China.

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Part One: Theoretical Background of Chinese Stratagems

Chapter 1: The Image Thinking and Structural Analysis

Image thinking is a phenomenon when a concrete image intimates an abstract notion or viewpoint to express. In the sense, the term ‘image’ supposes the Zhou Yi’s figure image and its explanation, as well as a figure’s significance and its associations. To explain the image we use language (yan), while the idea of it (yi) reflects its abstract thought. As is well-known, language is an instrument of thinking, imagery makes a thought content. However, language is unable to express the idea or thought content directly; for this, it resorts to concrete imagery.

Structure of the universe has come from three components: images (xiang), numbers (shu) and principles/ideals (li). There are numbers behind imagery, which can be true and false, while numbers are always changeable. When the Chinese speak of numbers they mean unfixed sort of them. For example, they say, literally: three-two of something; seven or eight, about ten, more than one hundred and so on.

Category of ‘imagery’ is the most significant in the Zhou Yi and contains two main functions: firstly, it represents an abstract image or imitated image marked as an undivided line, symbol of the Yang natural force, or as a divided line to mark that of Yin. These two are the greatest abstract images of the correlative system called the Zhou Yi. Secondly, the imagery is represented by concrete forms and objects and, first of all, it concerns the images of the eight trigrams. The images reside within figures and lines while qualitative features of the latter represent the imagery. Thus, the main purpose of images is to express the meaning of the figures and lines. The imagery, together with numbers, is the most fundamental method to represent the Zhou Yi’s contents. In the Zuo Zhuan we read: First things are born to get then their images; upon getting their proper images, they multiply to possess then their appropriate numbers.

According to Confucius’s definition, the Zhou Yi is the palette full of colours belonged to the great ways of Heaven and Earth. The core of the Zhou Yi consists of the following two factors: (1) Heaven’s strong (long-term) activity, according to which the superior man ceaselessly cultivates his virtues; (2) the earthly situational environment, according to which a virtuous man should formulate his principles of conduct. The hexagram Qian (1) means ‘advance and attack,’ while Kun (2) denotes yielding, ‘retreat and defence.’ As is said, One Yin and one Yang make what is called ‘Dao.’ By analogy, one advance and one retreat (one attack and one defence) are good enough to wage a war with six regular categories of warfare, which are: victorious precepts, defensive guidelines, attacking activities, workaround, coalition leadership and defeatist conditions.

The emblematic eight trigrams are represented by universal numbers and most abstract images to depict all terms and conditions of nature and society. Although there are myriads and myriads of objects and their images to be pictured, some logical regularities and appropriateness are used to put things right. Such regularities are termed ‘gua-de’ or ‘the qualitative attainments of the eight trigrams’ represented in the Shuo-gua Zhuan as a list of the eight trigram correlations.

Wang Bi (3rd century CE) advocates that an image is a product of thought (yi); therefore, we can find an image through contemplating an idea. For example, the hexagram Tai (11), symbol of intercourse, depicts a situation when Earth is above Heaven to manifest their essential Yin-Yang functions. This intercourse or alternation of two opposed natural forces, is represented by the image of motion, communication and great progress; hence great good fortune and benefits of Tai. Otherwise, there is the image of opposed Pi (12) represented by the same invertible diagram for both figures but from the flip side.

In the world of constant changes, there are myriads of things and matters with their various qualities and rules, which can be handled well only through their opposite alternatives to bring a situation to the state of poise and proper result. This is the way to avoid one-sidedness, which is an equivalent of extremity and downfall.

The Zhou Yi has a series of real images, such as Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, as well as a bunch of using images (a good fortune and ill) and ‘false’ images, such as Wei Ji (64), incompleteness, coming after Ji Ji (63), symbol of accomplishment, to reflect the idea of endlessness of the worldly affairs. Truly, what is unknown today will be known tomorrow, because the course of human thought is ceaseless and has no end of imagination. Everything what mankind has in hand has come out from the imagination. This sort of thinking cannot be explained by means of ‘flat images’; this is the subject of great imagination and the thousand-year history of literary tradition in China is the striking example of the greater cultural amplitude of the Chinese nation.

As is said in the Zhou Li (The Book of Rites of Zhou), In painting there are five colours to be mixed together: green (qing) matches with white, red with black, but the ‘xuan’ colour (which is ‘blackish-in-red’) with yellow. Otherwise, there is no beauty in painting, to say nothing of the Chinese cuisine. In calligraphy, for example, the Chinamen exploit the doctrine of ‘sharp needle wrapped with cotton,’ meaning the soft outside (termed ‘flesh’) but hard within, like bones. However, to make a masterpiece, one has to make Yin look like Yang but Yang like Yin; otherwise, Yin alone gives rise to nothing, but Yang does not bring up and support anything. As the saying goes, Yin cannot give birth alone, as well as Yang never brings up independently. Therefore, the ancients paid a great attention to imagery, by means of which they could express something deeper in meaning and extremely abstract in form. All Confucian Classics are based on the imagery, and the Zhou Yi is the first one in this list of canons.

As it has been mentioned earlier, the Zhou Yi’s imagery is about the figures and lines, according to which all matters and affairs become determined as auspicious and inauspicious. The Zhou Yi’s numbers are those of Yin and Yang, even and odd numbers, as well as the line positions under their ordinal numbers. Generally speaking, the Zhou Yi is a great mystery, while the Zhou Yi’s numbers with their binary system are greater mystery than that. Throughout thousands of years of Chinese history, there are so many thinkers and scholars who have tried to puzzle this mystery from different points of approach to the problem. However, no one can reveal it completely. The images and numbers make the basis of the oracle’s structure produce all sorts of changes. This mechanism includes the Taiji diagram, the eight trigrams arranged according to the Ideal (Pre-birth) and Actual (Post-birth) sequences, the Yin-Yang theory, the ‘wu-xing’ doctrine, the system of Ten Celestial Stems and Twelve Terrestrial Branches, and many other systems, which have been worked out and developed on the base of the Zhou Yi’s images and numbers throughout the ages.

In the West, there is Aristotle who more than two millenniums ago worked out a tool of logical thinking, the canon for the Westerners. In China, such a canon is the Zhou Yi with its full set of logical images and numbers, including Heaven’s height (1) and Earth’s lowland (2), the three powers, four seasons, five sounds, six musical tones, seven celestial bodies, eight winds and nine regions to make the total number 45, the total number of the Luo-shu diagram. The ancients never neglected Confucian Classics but drew inspiration mainly from the Zhou Yi, Lao-zi, and Zhuang-zi, which were referred to as the Three Studies of Trinity (san-xuan), that is to say, the three main canons for unlocking the spirit of Heaven by following the natural regularity termed ‘the Dao’ and its earthly reflection, the De.

Imagery of the Zhou Yi comes from Yin-Yang, four images, eight trigrams, sixty-four hexagrams and their 384 lines arranged into the hexagram images. The oracle represents a complete integral system reflected through another teaching called ‘xiang-shu’ (the images and numbers), which starts to be more sophisticated throughout its long-term development and manifested in different schemes and diagrams, through codes and symbols of which the traditional Chinese thought is reflected in full. These codes and symbols are information carriers, the key to the theory of knowledge and ontological philosophical system, combination of intuitive and abstract awareness.

So, what the traditional way of Chinese thinking is? Integrity of systematic thought is one of the basic features of Chinese mind which is akin indeed to the feminine mind in many respects. The qualities of the feminine intelligence and feminine logic are exactly the qualities of the Chinese mind. The Chinese head, like the feminine head, is full of common sense. Eventually, common sense and the practical mind are characteristics of women rather than of men, who are more liable to take their feet off the ground and soar to impossible heights. This confirms that Chinese logic is highly personal, like women's logic, according to which the whole world represents wholeness of the universe, an entire structure with its certain mechanism of organization, which, in turn, consists of many smaller systems and configurations to be reformed and transformed according to circumstances. To understand details means to grasp the whole system and vice versa. It doesn’t matter what school it is, all their representatives speak of integrity of the universal thought. In so many words, the Chinese way of thinking is synthetic, concrete and revels in idioms and proverbs, like women's conversation. Women have a surer instinct of life than men, and the Chinese have it more than other people. The Chinese depend largely upon their intuition for solving all nature's mysteries, that same ‘intuition’ or ‘sixth sense’ which makes many women believe a thing is so because it is so. And the main source of such concept is the Zhou Yi with its system of divination, correlations of natural forces, images and numbers.

Divination is basically a narrative concept and, therefore, following Confucius, we are led to a paradox; the effort to write human narrative is an excellent mode to present what writing does not capture of action, but can, nonetheless, still be shown through the muteness of language that is defined as a multilayered and biologically rich sense of social action in time.

The same advantage accrues to elemental analysis of the 36 stratagems by virtue of the Zhou Yi, with which they interweaved on the essential basis. If we look at the graph ‘circular,’ we will see two main parts of it: a vessel for the seasonal sacrifice and a mouth to express the idea of rotation and circulation. There are three kinds of circulation: 1) all around (in all directions simultaneously); 2) cyclical (a certain period of time); comprehensive (complete with all what is desired). The creative tensions and dynamic inversions of idiomatic expressions can be better read in a structural presentation. Of course, from the very beginning the reader should realize that such reading is still very difficult; moving away from poetry, one loses the blissful enjoyment of tone and volume in their appropriate expression. Sadly, but work such as we are embarking on does not provide such a rich enjoyment, and efforts we must make are quite arduous and exacting.

A brief view on the Chinese way of thinking and its characteristics would enable us to appreciate the cause of the Chinamen’s failure to develop natural science. The Greeks laid the foundation of natural science because the Greek mind was essentially an analytical mind, a fact which is proved by the striking modernity of Aristotle. The Egyptians developed geometry and astronomy, sciences which required an analytical mind: and the Hindus developed a grammar of their own. The Chinese, with all their native intelligence, never developed a science of grammar, as for the Chinese mind delights only in moral platitudes and their abstract terms like ‘benevolence,’ ‘righteousness,’ ‘propriety’ and ‘loyalty,’ so general notions that in such discussions they are naturally lost in vague generalities. As to the Chinese language and grammar, it shows some sort of femininity because the language, in its form, syntax and vocabulary, reveals an extreme simplicity of thinking, concreteness of imagery and economy of syntactical relationships.

Obviously, the divorce of ‘yi-li’ (the Zhou Yi’s ideals) and ‘xiang-shu’ (images and numbers) traditions that occurred in the Han-period history of China is utterly unsuitable. The structural analysis reads each element, indifferent to whether it is to be formal or textual, as a function of the overall constitution. The whole exists within each element that announces its position within the whole. These are the new rules by which elemental analysis rediscovers a new wholeness of the text in order to speak to the overall design of the treatise, in the title of which the number 36 plays the key part in comprehension. Elemental analysis requires that we define a set of images which are distributed formally or textually across the text. Having isolated a set, we can proceed then to study its deployment in various configurations. This procedure, it should be noted, works from the whole body text to its sections, three and four-character phrases and bi-graphs. We are not piecing together the text's parts to get the proper meanings, but studying the text-wide distribution of its basic 'images and numbers,' on which the whole logic, internal structure and ethical principles have been built up throughout centuries. But even if we learn to discern them theoretically, we usually refuse to put them into regular practice for working out and developing our strategic thinking.

I have resorted here to structural analysis, which is used here as a workable method with its promising openness to rationale, to show the concept of imagery (xiang) as the basic for my textual interpretation. This concept belongs to a rich cultural tradition stemming from the basis of writing and textuality in ancient China, namely the divinatory tradition of archaic scripts (gu-wen) and worked out apparatus of canonical configuration where the system of 'xiang-shu' played its crucial part.

‘Image’ (xiang) means ‘external manifestation’; ‘number’ (shu) denotes the internal measuring, proportion and correlation. The