36 Stratagems: Colorful Illustrations Edition

Author: Sun Xiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: The book "The 36 Stratagems" has no accurate date or author to be traced to this day, and it has never been included in the military chronicles of past dynasties. "The 36 Stratagems" is a comprehensive book of wisdom and strategy that summarizes the outstanding military thought and rich struggle experience of ancient China. It concisely and comprehensively embodies the essence of the wisdom and strategies of all dynasties in China, representing the crystallization of wisdom accumulated over thousands of years by the working people of ancient China. It is one of the classic works highly valued by strategists both at home and abroad, and is considered a remarkable military book that can be called "a treasury of wisdom and the pinnacle of strategy." The book is arranged in the order of stratagems, divided into six sets of strategies: Superiority Strategies, Confrontation Strategies, Attack Strategies, Mixed Strategies, Alliance Strategies, and Defeat Strategies. Each set of strategies is further divided into six stratagems, totaling 36 stratagems. Each stratagem includes a title explanation, annotations, and remarks. The annotations are extensive, ranging from the hexagrams of the "I Ching" to the principles of yin and yang, which are deduced into the flexibility and rigidity, surprise and normality, advance and retreat, offense and defense, oneself and others, the dominant and the subordinate, and labor and rest in military tactics, making each stratagem rich in dialectical philosophy. The remarks often cite historical battles before the Song Dynasty and the sayings of famous military strategists such as Sun Tzu, Wu Zi, and Yue Lao, providing interpretations and extensions of the 36 stratagems.