The 36 Stratagems

Mask your real intentions under a fake front. A familiar sight breeds complacency. Hide your main mechanism in the open, not in the dark. The most profound secrets look like the most ordinary actions.

When the enemy is too strong to attack directly, attack something he holds dear. Avoid a head-on clash with a superior force. Strike where they are vulnerable to relieve pressure elsewhere.

Attack using the strength of another. When an enemy's intentions are clear, use an ally's hand to strike them down. Conserve your own energy while achieving your goal.

It is an advantage to choose the time and place for battle. In this way you know when and where the battle will take place, while your enemy does not. Wait for the enemy to exhaust themselves.

When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. Benefit from others' troubles.

In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Create a diversion to camouflage your real intentions.

Make somebody believe there was something when there is in fact nothing. One way of using this strategy is to create an illusion of something's existence.

Deceive the enemy with an obvious approach that will take a very long time, while surprising him by taking a shortcut and sneaking up to him.

Delay entering the field of battle until all the other players have become exhausted fighting amongst themselves. Then go in at full strength and pick up the pieces.

Charm and ingratiate yourself to your enemy. When you have gained his trust, move against him in secret.

There are circumstances in which you must sacrifice short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal. Use a scapegoat to suffer the consequences.

While carrying out your plans be flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, however small.

Do something spectacular ('hitting the grass') to provoke a response from the enemy ('startle the snake'), thereby giving away his plans or position.

Take an institution, a technology, a method, or even an ideology that has been forgotten or discarded and appropriate it for your own purpose.

Never directly attack an opponent whose advantage is derived from its position. Instead lure them away from their position, thus separating them from their source of strength.

Cornered prey will often mount a final desperate attack. Let the enemy believe they have a chance to secure freedom. When they relax, capture them.

Bait someone by making them believe they gain something or just make them react to it ('toss out a brick') and obtain something valuable from them in return ('get a jade gem').

If the enemy's army is strong but is allied to the commander only by money, taking aim at the leader will dissolve the army. Strike at the heart.

Take out the leading argument or asset of someone; 'steal someone's thunder'. Defeat a superior enemy by undermining their foundation.

Create confusion and use this confusion to further your own goals. In a complex or chaotic situation, people often act reactively.

Mask yourself. Either leave one's distinctive traits behind, thus becoming inconspicuous, or masquerade as something or someone else.

To capture an enemy, or more generally to strike the decisive blow, you must completely encircle and deny them any escape routes.

Nations that border each other become enemies, while nations separated by distance make better allies.

Borrow the resources of an ally to attack a common enemy. Once the enemy is defeated, use those resources to turn on the ally that lent them.

Disrupt the enemy's formations, interfere with their methods of operations, change the rules by which they are used to following.

To discipline, control, or warn others whose status or position excludes them from direct confrontation; use analogy and innuendo.

Hide behind the mask of a fool, a drunk, or a madman to create confusion about your intentions and motivations. Hide your edge.

With baits and deceptions, lure your enemy into treacherous terrain. Then cut off their lines of communication and avenue of escape.

Tying silk blossoms on a dead tree gives the illusion that the tree is healthy. Through the use of artifice make something of no value appear valuable.

Usurp leadership in a situation where you are normally subordinate. Infiltrate your target until you control it from within.

Send your enemy beautiful women to cause discord within his camp. This strategy works on three levels: distracting the commander, causing jealousy, and draining energy.

When the enemy is superior in numbers and your situation is such that you expect to be overrun at any moment, drop all pretense of military preparedness and act calmly.

Undermine your enemy's ability to fight by secretly causing discord between him and his friends, allies, advisors, and commanders.

Pretending to be injured has two possible applications. First, the enemy will relax his guard. Second, it can be used to convince the enemy of feigned surrender.

In important matters, one should use several stratagems applied simultaneously after another as in a chain of stratagems. Keep different plans operating in an overall scheme.

If it becomes obvious that your current course of action will lead to defeat, then retreat and regroup. Avoid decisive engagement.