Reading History with Strategy: The Most Valuable Conspiracies and Open Strategies of 5,000 Years

Author: Zhou Zhenwu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features:
☆ When the ruler is sweet, the subject is sour; when the ruler is indifferent, the subject is salty.
☆ When precautions are complete, intention lulls; when something is common, suspicion wanes.
☆ Only by placing oneself in a death situation can life be found; only by positioning oneself in a lost situation can survival be achieved.
☆ Avoid showing one's talent too early to become the target of all.
☆ Use stillness to control movement, waiting for the right moment to launch a surprise counterattack against the enemy.
☆ Those who like to help many people onto their horses also like to pull them down at critical moments.
☆ Those who win every battle are not the individuals, not the pioneers, but always the ones who follow behind.
☆ Being hands-on in everything does not prove a ruler's wisdom; a wise ruler allows the ministers to work while he rests.
☆ Never go to extremes in anything; leave room for maneuver. Filter the gold from the river of strategy. Throughout China's 5,000-year history, the use of strategy is everywhere. The saying "Deep planning and foresight prevent adversity" speaks to the importance of strategy in life and affairs. This book presents stories of how the ancients used strategy in warfare, business, power struggles, and success, covering aspects such as "enduring humiliation and pain, hiding one's talents," "ambition for power, challenging the throne," "blaming oneself to win hearts," "strategic expansion and mutual benefit or loss," "defaming and isolating enemies," "balancing leniency and severity, creating checks and balances," "gathering intelligence and testing intentions," and "retiring after success, preserving oneself." The content is rich and the language is easy to understand. Readers can, from the perspective of our time, apply socialist moral principles and value standards, using historical analysis methods, to judge history, evaluate historical figures, and discern the yin and yang of these strategies while reading these short stories.