The Power Of Persuasion Ancient Chinese Style
“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will win a hundred times in a hundred battles. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you win one and lose the next. If you do not know yourself or your enemy, you will always lose.” -Ancient Chinese Proverb
One of my main passions in life is learning and one of the fields of study that has brought me an incredible amount of insight and knowledge is the phenomenal collection of ancient Chinese proverbs known as the Thirty-Six Chinese Stratagems. These stratagems describe the most cunning, persuasive and subtle strategies ever devised and whereas most other ancient Chinese texts along similar lines (as in, The Art of War) are focused on warfare and military practices, these stratagem are very applicable in daily life, in politics, in business, in all manner of communication and negotiation, and for our purposes the Thirty-Six Stratagem are very compatible and intrinsically linked to persuasion.
So what is a stratagem? The word ’stratagem’ is often mistaken to mean ’strategy’. This is incorrect. Stratagem actually is synonymous with ‘ruse’– an action or plan which is intended to deceive someone. Obviously, with an intention of deception, the Thirty-Six Stratagems are not always nice. They use what we would call psychological warfare or manipulation as a means to an end. The American proverb ‘all’s fair in love and war’ perfectly captures the approach of these stratagem because at times they can be absolutely coldblooded and cruel.
Having said all that, I want to stress the necessity of integrity and honesty. Persuasion works best when we are true to ourselves and act with total congruency with what is right. All may or may not be fair in love and war, if we have the tools that we need to really get to the bottom of human nature, we can protect ourselves if or when others try to use intentional deception against us. Moreover, we can find ways to use these tools with honor and truth, in new ways that expand our potential to persuade. From time to time, I intend to write on these stratagem because their correspondence and relation to persuasion is inseparable. I will be starting an even deeper exploration of these stratagem because it is my feeling and experience that they bring persuasion and influence and self knowledge to an entirely new level, in magnitudes of improvement, and once they become a part of your other than conscious, you will begin to see clearly how these teachings benefit all aspects of life.
There are six categories of stratagems corresponding to six conditions or situations. They are: The Stratagems of Winning; The Stratagems of Defending; The Stratagems of Attacking; The Stratagems of Scuffling; The Stratagems of Merging; The Stratagems of Losing. If we can comprehend what they describe, we can reverse engineer them, pull out the parts that work, and decide when and how others are going to be able to use them against us, and decide when it’s ethical and honorable to use them on others.
