Sun Tzu's Art of War: Living Application (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Liu Ye / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: "The Art of War" and Life Management—Wang Xizhi's strategy of distributing grain before war requires meticulous planning, which reflects caution. Similarly, in daily life, one must be careful and thoughtful. By thinking and analyzing more, everything will go smoothly. During the Jin Dynasty, the calligrapher Wang Xizhi served as the Right Military General. In the Lao'an Prefecture, there had been consecutive years of drought, with crops failing and the people starving, while corrupt officials and wealthy landlords lived in luxury. Wang Xizhi witnessed this and felt deeply distressed. First, he distributed all the grain he had stored at home, but this did not solve the problem. He then urged the local government offices in Lao'an Prefecture to petition the court for grain relief. However, the corrupt officials pretended to be deaf and blind, even refusing to see them. In desperation, Wang Xizhi came up with a brilliant idea. He wrote a memorial, mounted a fast horse, and rode day and night toward the capital.
That day, the capital was in a festive mood, with music and dance filling the air. The emperor and his ministers were drinking and carousing in the palace when they heard Wang Xizhi had arrived. Assuming he had come to present calligraphy, they summoned him to the palace. A short while later, Wang Xizhi entered the palace, and the emperor saw that he held a scroll in his hands. He quickly had it brought forward. The emperor noticed it was a memorial but paid little attention, instead admiring Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. When he saw the characters "distribute grain" in the memorial, he was completely captivated by Wang Xizhi's fluid, dynamic brushwork and said, "Distribute grain, good! Excellent!"
"Thank you for your gracious favor! I will go to Lao'an immediately to distribute grain," Wang Xizhi kneeled and shouted as soon as the emperor finished speaking. By the time the emperor realized what was happening, it was too late. He had no choice but to appoint Wang Xizhi as a special envoy to distribute grain to Lao'an.
Wang Xizhi, ordered by the emperor to distribute grain, frightened the corrupt officials, wealthy landlords, and wealthy gentry. They rushed to Wang Xizhi's mansion in Lao'an, begging the Lao'an ruler to intervene on their behalf. The ruler, after a quick thought, said, "No need to panic. You can gather some people to dress as famine-stricken villagers and go to receive grain from Wang Xizhi!"
The villains immediately praised this idea and knelt to thank him, then eagerly set out to find the "famine-stricken villagers" they needed.
By the day of distributing grain, Lao'an City was packed with people, the noise rising higher and higher. The government office responsible for grain distribution was surrounded by a sea of people. When the time came, Wang Xizhi stepped out and saw that the people in front of him were all well-nourished, with plump faces and fine skin. Suspecting something was amiss, he ordered his subordinates to investigate. It turned out that the people in front were not famine-stricken villagers but guards from the Lao'an ruler's mansion, attendants from the prefecture, county, and township offices, and the lackeys of the wealthy landlords.
Furious upon learning this, Wang Xizhi was about to erupt when he suddenly had a change of heart. He decided to outsmart them. Climbing to a high place, he announced to the crowd, "I had planned to distribute grain in Lao'an today, but according to reports, the disaster in the southern Donghai Prefecture is even more severe. Therefore, grain distribution in this prefecture is temporarily suspended. I ask all the villagers to help me transport all the grain to the Yi River for shipment south."
As soon as Wang Xizhi finished speaking, a commotion broke out in the crowd. The fake famine-stricken villagers quickly slipped away, dejected. The real famine-stricken villagers, however, held onto hope and did not leave immediately. They sympathized with the even worse plight of the poor in Donghai Prefecture and, upon hearing Wang Xizhi's request, spontaneously organized themselves to carry and lift the grain from the granaries. In no time, all the grain was transported to the Yi River.
By then, the crowd at the Yi River had almost no more fat-faced, well-nourished fake famine-stricken villagers. Wang Xizhi addressed the crowd and said, "Villagers, today I will distribute grain here. Whoever brings the grain will keep it. Go home and use it to support your families!"
By adapting to the situation, Wang Xizhi changed his strategy and defeated the tricks of the guards, attendants, and wealthy landlords, successfully distributing the grain to the famine-stricken people.
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