The Thirty-Six Stratagems

[pocossin]

The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a brief text of apparent Sun Zi pseudepigraphica, which by Internet account was "discovered at a roadside vendor's stall in Szechwan in 1941." Does anyone know the provenance of this text or have the original classical Chinese version?

This marvelous gem is replete with hexagram lore. The stratagems are organized in seasonal sequence from beginning yang to maximum yin, and are derived from corresponding hexagrams through abstract and realistic hexagram pictures.

For example, Stratagem 15 is "Lure the tiger from the mountain." The lower trigram of Hexagram 15 is Ken, and Ken has the mound-like shape of a mountain. The upper trigram is Kun. Kun is made of three broken lines, giving two rows of stripes, like the stripes on both sides of a tiger. Thus, the hexagram pictures a tiger on a mountain.

I recommend this little masterpiece to Yi Jing persons of a contemplative turn of mind.

Tom

[bradford_h]

Hi Tom-
On my site, in Laozi and Daoist Links, Chinese Lit & Classics, under "Sunzi (Bingfa)" there are two sites. One has the Chinese text in jpegs, the other has links to other 36 stratagem pages.
I think it's really recent, like Ming dynasty.
b

[kevin]

Or for a quick look - here

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=36ji

[martin]

This is really a gem. One of the strategies for desperate situations is:

The Strategy of Beautiful Women

"Send your enemy beautiful women to cause discord within his camp. This strategy can work on three levels. First, the ruler becomes so enamored with the beauty that he neglects his duties and allows his vigilance to wane. Second, other males at court will begin to display aggressive behavior that inflames minor differences hindering co-operation and destroying morale. Third, other females at court, motivated by jealousy and envy, begin to plot intrigues further exasperating the situation."

I will try that one, I think. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif

[kevin]

Hmm...

I must pick a serious fight with you immediately!

My address to send the Ladies is...

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif

--K

[pocossin]

Bradford and Kevin, thanks. I'll check out those links.

Martin, did you notice that "The Strategy of Beautiful Women" is for a very good reason strategy 31 and that the character for 'beauty' resembles hexagram 31? Whoever wrote the Thirty-Six Stratagems, maybe herself a beautiful woman, loved such subtle allusions.

Tom

[meerkats64]

a few years ago i came across website concerning 36 strategies i should have recorded tthe name of that site

[chingching]

bradford's links are still good
http://www.hermetica.info/LZDLinks.htm
and the wikipedia page has a few more links, and you can buy books on amazon (books on the 36)

[boyler]

two in one ...

... if you play weiqi then there is a good book for you ...
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=148648

[pocossin]

Somehow the above link takes you to the posting form for this thread.

[boyler]

sorry, it should be the link to amazon ...
http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Six-Stratagems-Applied-Go/dp/096418477X

[pocossin]

sorry, it should be the link to amazon ...
http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Six-Stratagems-Applied-Go/dp/096418477X

That is one expensive 200-page paperback book -- $175.00 for a used copy in good condition and a mere $559.35 for a copy in very good condition. I'll stick to personal research :)

[boyler]

ooh, sorry again :(

I didn't look at its price as I have it ... in that case forget it, it's not worth it ... what do you want, original, translation, or both? I think I have it.

[pocossin]

ooh, sorry again :(

I didn't look at its price as I have it ... in that case forget it, it's not worth it ... what do you want, original, translation, or both? I think I have it.

Thanks, but truly I'm not smart enough to play the game. Also, no one around here to play with that I know of. In the distant past I read books about it and still have vague ideas about its strategy. Could you give some hints about how the stratagems are applied in play?

[boyler]

It's advanced book for stronger players, and it's hard to explain it here.
Anyway, I was asking about Thirty-Six Stratagems itself.

[meerkats64]

i found website concerning 36 stratgems in i ching i will e mail it to you & speak of it on online clarity thanks for your help by putting my thread in exploring divination it ll take me a while to get hang of online clarity concerning where to post threads

[pocossin]

When I began this thread six years ago, I did not know how to use BBcode to make pictures. In the first post I mentioned the relation between hexagram 15 and stratagem 15, "Lure the tiger from the mountain." Here is the connection between hexagram 15 and a tiger on a mountain.


▄▄ ▄▄
▄▄ ▄▄ stripes of a tiger
▄▄ ▄▄
▄▄▄▄▄▄
▄▄ ▄▄ mountain
▄▄ ▄▄


Think of a tiger as in abstract, cubist art and as viewed from above.


▄▄ ▄▄
▄▄ ▄▄
▄▄ ▄▄


I take this stratagem to mean, Lure your opponent from his position of advantage. The other stratagems are based on the hexagrams in this same pictorial way.