The First Six Stratagems

To win one hundred battles is not the highest good. The highest good is to have the enemy soldiers submit without fighting.

-Sun Tzu 

The Thirty Six Stratagems was originally a collection of military and political wisdom collected by early Chinese scholars and warriors. At their heart, the stratagems teach three principles fundamental to ancient Chinese military thought.

1. Know all you can before battle.
2. Use the mind before resorting to violence.
3. Win without fighting.

The original text of the Thirty Six Stratagems was very brief. Usually four Chinese characters arranged as a mnemonic device to help convey the concept of the stratagem, and a few lines of classical Chinese. It was patterned in many ways off of the I Ching (Book of Changes), an ancient Chinese tome of philosophical and some would say mystical knowledge.

Since that time, the Thirty Six Stratagems have been reprinted and reanalyzed from progressively modern perspectives and a number of scholars have supplemented it with commentary on the different stratagems and their historical and modern applications. One commentary, written by Hiroshi Moriya, was published in Japan in 2004 and then subsequently translated and republished in english in 2008. It is to that translation, called The Thirty Six Secret Strategies of the Martial Arts, that we turn today.

The stratagems are listed under six headings, mirroring the hexagrams of the I Ching. Each has it's own application, but the individual stratagems attain even greater depth when taken as a part of a whole. To understand the Thirty Six Stratagems, one must consider the words of the translator William Scott Wilson in his forward;

"The Thirty Six Strategies of the Martial Arts considers the world as a dynamic field of energy, constantly moving and flowing, in which conditions may call for one strategy now, and another depending upon the changes in the physical and psychological environment. Indeed, an intended strategy may evoke changes itself, and a different strategy may be required as circumstances evolve. One must avoid rigidity at all costs and be totally aware of the grid of activity and its psychological effects on both one's enemy and oneself."

He further compares understanding the Thirty Six Stratagems to the way that Confucius described the I Ching in his own commentary on that work.

Ah, the Book of Changes
You should keep it within reach.
Its way is frequently shifting.
Changing and moving without stopping anywhere,
Flowing through the six Emptinesses,
While rising and sinking without constancy
Shifting mutually between the hard and the soft,

You cannot make it into fixed law;
It only marches on toward change.

There is, however, a method to its coming and going;
Inside and out, it would have you know apprehension.

It also makes clear sorrow and grief and their causes;
And though you have no great teacher,
You should face it as you would your father and mother.

At first, follow the words, then,
     if you can fathom their direction,
The consistent rules will be there.

But if you are not quite the man,
The Way will be in vain, and go nowhere.

The Thirty Six Stratagems are not perfect solutions to every problem. But taken as a whole they give the reader an insight both in to classical Chinese military strategy, and in to how to defeat one's opponent without having to resort to violence. As Master Tatum once said, "the goal is not ever to have to fight."

Today we will discuss the first six stratagems.


Strategies for Victory in Battle
1. Obscure Heaven, Cross the Sea
The essence of this stratagem is to disguise your true intention with obvious, clearly identifiable actions. Let the opponent see what you are doing, but not what you are thinking. In this way, you program him to associate what he sees with what he believes is happening, and then strike when he defends against what he expects. In karate, a physical application of this strategy is to repeatedly follow a wheel kick with a backnuckle. Again and again. Wheel kick then backnuckle. Then, when your opponent believes the backnuckle is coming follow with a low strike instead. Let him see you coming, but keep your true intentions hidden from view.

2. Surround Wei, Help Chao
When confronted with a more powerful opponent it is not always advantageous to confront him where he is strong. Instead, attack where he is vulnerable and force him to change his position. Then when he moves to respond to your attack he will be vulnerable where before he was strong. If your opponent has a strong high guard, attack low. When he drops his hands to protect his body, his head will be open to strikes.


3. Borrow a Sword to Make Your Kill
There are two applications of this stratagem. First is to allow a third party to defeat your opponent. The second is to use your opponent's strength against himself. Either way, the concept is to allow the strength of another to do your fighting for you, while you stay relatively safe and away from the conflict. In self defense application, this could be allowing the bouncer to toss the guys who were hassling you at the club instead of fighting. Borrowed Force is a reflection of the second application of this stratagem. By allowing your opponent's force to power your strike you use his strength against him.


4. Await his Tired Steps at Your Leisure
This stratagem teaches you to marshal your strength while allowing your opponent to expend his. Literally, it means to wait in a position of strength while your opponent comes to you. A physical application of this stratagem would be the "rope-a-dope" strategy employed by Muhammad Ali against George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. By allowing his opponent to tire himself chasing Ali around the ring and attacking him where he was comfortable and strong, Ali was able to wait until Foreman grew tired and then attack him from a superior position.


5. Take Advantage of the Fire to Plunder the Goods
This stratagem is for attacking from a superior position. When you have forced your opponent in to an inferior position, you take advantage of his weakness and attack with your strength to finish him with a decisive blow. A physical application of this stratagem would be striking the opponent to a vulnerable position and then applying a finishing move. For instance, knocking the opponent down with hand strikes and then finishing with stomps instead of allowing him a chance to regroup and rise to his feet.


6. Be Heard in the East, Attack from the West
This stratagem is similar to the first in that the essence is to shift the opponent's focus from your true target. The difference is that in this stratagem, the sound "heard in the east" is a deception. There is no true attack in the east. Instead, the plan all along was to attack from the west. Feints, fakes, and misdirections are all physical applications of this stratagem. Showing a high line strike and then attacking the legs while the opponent is guarding the head is an example of "being heard in the east and attacking from the west."


These are only the first six stratagems. There are thirty more. But these six stratagems give you an example of the kind of approaches they contain. Know the enemy. Disguise your intentions. Do no more harm than necessary. If possible, win without fighting. When fighting, maneuver the opponent to disadvantageous positions from which he can not defend. If you understand these stratagems, and are able to flow seamlessly between them, if you understand the "method of coming and going," you will never be imperiled in battle.

Drills -
Beginner: Practice attacking where your opponent is not blocking. If he is blocking outside, attack inside. If he is blocking high, attack low. Attack the opponent where he is vulnerable, and not where he is strong.

Intermediate: Allow your opponent to come to you. Force him to attack you where you are strong and to expend his energy against your defenses. When he is weak, counter with your strength. When he is tired, counter with your energy.

Advanced: Practice feints, fakes, and misdirections. Obscure heaven, cross the sea. Fill the opponent's mind with clutter. Force him to chase your actions until he is constantly moving out of position. Then attack with decisive force. Where he is unprepared for attack, deal a powerful blow.