Thirty six Strategies: "Ditan Literature" Becomes a "Classic of Chinese Studies"
I don't know when a book with unknown source of edition, patchwork and ignoring the catalogue of previous dynasties was misunderstood as "classic of Chinese culture". This book is the Thirty Six Stratagems, and on some occasions it is called a famous military work comparable to Sun Tzu's Art of War. In this regard, it is necessary to clarify, to prevent fish's eyes from mixing with pearls, and to remind friends who love ancient books that reading ancient books needs to be screened. The Thirty six Stratagems was written very late, but the statement of "Thirty six Stratagems" appeared very early. It was first seen in the Southern Qi Book, Biography of Wang Jingze. It said that Wang Jingze, a senior general of the Qi Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, rebelled and said to someone, "The Thirty six Stratagems of Tan Gong are the best way to go. Your father and son have to go in an emergency." The trouble with reading ancient books is that there are allusions in allusions. Who is Tan Gong? Tandaoji was a famous general of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty. He led the army to fight with the Wei army and withdrew because of the lack of food and grass. Through his efforts in the evening, the Wei army thought that the Song army was not short of food and would not pursue any more, so the whole army retreated. It was beautiful to "walk", so it became the source of the saying "thirty-six stratagems go first". Here, it is not that Sandauji has 36 strategies, but that Sandauji has many strategies. Why say "thirty-six" when there are many tricks? 35、 Thirty seven is not good? This is a cultural phenomenon and will not be discussed here. We can see that among the mysterious numbers of Chinese culture, "36" has long appeared in ancient books as a model number. Taking poetry as an example, Li Bai's "Spring Journey": "Thirty six emperors want to meet each other, and immortals float down the clouds." Wang Tinggui's "Calling Xuanhe Imperial Paintings": "If you lock the gate of the palace with jade, who knows how to walk in the palace with prosperity?" In Taoism, the heaven is divided into "Jiuxiao thirty-six days", "Jiuxiao thirty-six immortals", and the place where Taoists practice is "thirty-six cave days". In these usages, "36" is empty, and "36" and "36" are exaggerated variants, which all mean numerous and great things. But there are always people who want to put these figures into practice. For example, "every line has its own number one scholar". Some people really want to list the names of every line, which is too pedantic. It is just like that the Journey to the West said that there were 72 changes in the Monkey King, which could not be the real point. Otherwise, changes in fruits such as apples and bananas would fill the quota of 72 changes. In the same way, seeing that there is a saying in the ancient books that "Tan Gong's thirty-six strategies are the best way to go", later generations tried hard to find ways to match the thirty-six strategies. Why do you talk about everything? Looking at the Thirty six Strategies, the names of each strategy are almost common idioms. They are "regular visitors" in the storybooks, drum lyrics and other popular rap works in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and "familiar faces" in the common people. For example, the Yuan Opera has appeared in "Peach Blossom", "Qi Yingbu", and "Golden Cicada Stripping its Shell"; For example, in novels, luring a tiger away from the mountain has appeared in Journey to the West, killing people by borrowing a knife in A Dream of Red Mansions, and hiding the truth from the sea in Tang Dynasty. According to the allusions involved in these idioms, some scholars infer that the 36th Stratagem was not written earlier than the end of the Ming Dynasty. This assumption is still somewhat conservative, and the appearance of the book is really "unusual". Official and private bibliographies of previous dynasties, such as Han Shu · Yi Wen Zhi, Sui Shu · Jing Ji Zhi, Chong Wen Zong Mu, Jun Zhai Shu Zhi, Zhi Zhai Shu Lu Jie Ti, Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu Jie, have not recorded the Thirty six Strategies. This is enough to explain the suspicious origin of the book. Did the book jump out of the stone? No, it's also similar. On September 16, 1961, Guangming Daily published an article titled "Shuhe", "On the 36 Strategies, It's the Best Way to Go", which wrote: "Ten years ago, I accidentally found a booklet printed on local paper at a cold stall in Chengdu... This booklet was reproduced based on a manuscript, and the cover book" 36 Strategies " , the marginal note is' Secret Art of War '... Unfortunately, there is no author and no source. " Cold stall is a small stall or floor stall that doesn't attract people's attention. The book found by Shuhe is the base copy of "Thirty six Strategies", which is popular in the market today. It is the first time that "Thirty six Strategies" has appeared in print in the world. This copy was reprinted by Chengdu Xinghua Printing House in 1941. There was a brief explanation on the reprinted book, saying that the original book was a copy, which was found in a bookstall in Bin County, Shaanxi Province in 1941. Less than a hundred years after its debut, it is impossible to say that the "Thirty six Stratagems" are ancient; From stall to stall, it is hard to say that Thirty Six Stratagems is a serious publication. Some people may have said that heroes don't ask where they come from, but only if the content is good. But is its content good? Look at these names, killing people with borrowed weapons, looting, hiding swords in a smile, shoplifting, fishing in troubled waters, changing roles, taking stairs in the room, pointing fingers at the thorns and cursing locusts, beauty schemes... Are there any good words? Where is the shadow of military strategy? The market is full of gas. It is not enough to explain the nature of the war. At best, it is a plot. Sun Tzu's Art of War stresses the importance of deception in military operations, which is an understanding of the nature of war and a guide to military action from a strategic perspective. It is a far cry from the tricks of sneaking around like the Thirty Six Stratagems. Moreover, many schemes are synonymous. The specific meanings of "diversifying" and "sneaking around", "looting" and "fishing in troubled waters", "drawing from the bottom of the fire" and "drawing stairs from the house", "attacking the Guo by false means" and "taking sheep by hand" are slightly different, but the main themes are similar. Classic military books such as Sun Tzu's Art of War and the New Book of Discipline and Efficiency will never be arranged in this way. Not to mention that many of the war examples cited in the Thirty six Stratagems belong to "novelist's words". For example, the saying "If Zhou Yu uses Cao Cao's spies, he will use them to kill his generals." It clearly means that Zhou Yu uses Jiang Gan to mislead Cao Cao into killing Cai Mao and Zhang Yun. The problem is that the story was fabricated by Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In history, Cai Mao had old friendship with Cao Cao, and was granted the title of Hanyang Pavilion Marquis after he was demoted to Cao Cao; The outcome of Zhang Yun's surrender to Cao Cao is unknown. It can be seen that Cao Cao has never been hit by Zhou Yu's counter plot, nor have Cai Mao and Zhang Yun been killed. Another example is the "serial plan", which says that "Pang Tong connected Cao Cao's warships and then set them on fire to prevent them from getting off". The story is also from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is not recorded in the Annals of the Three Kingdoms.