Category: China


The Thiry-Six Stratagems (三十六計)

Filed Under: China, Philosophy by admin — 2 Comments
December 25, 2009

Following on from my previous post, I decided to read more about the Thirty-Six Stratagems which I’d never before heard of. They’re very Chinese and remind me a lot of The Art of War and other Chinese classics, but what I’m curious to know is why all of the idioms except the final six (the Defeat Stratagems) have four characters. The Defeat Statagems only have three. I’ll have to find out why some day, unless a Chinese scholar reading this blog can enlighten me?

The Thirty-Six Stratagems.


    WINNING STRATAGEMS

  1. Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean
    (simplified Chinese: 瞒天过海; traditional Chinese: 瞞天過海; pinyin: Mán tiān guò hǎi)
  2. Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào
    (simplified Chinese: 围魏救赵; traditional Chinese: 圍魏救趙; pinyin: Wéi Wèi jiù Zhào)
  3. Kill with a borrowed knife
    (simplified Chinese: 借刀杀人; traditional Chinese: 借刀殺人; pinyin: Jiè dāo shā rén)
  4. Leisurely await for the laboured
    (simplified Chinese: 以逸待劳; traditional Chinese: 以逸待勞; pinyin: Yǐ yì dài láo)
  5. Loot a burning house
    (Chinese: 趁火打劫; pinyin: Chèn huǒ dǎ jié)
  6. Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west
    (simplified Chinese: 声东击西; traditional Chinese: 聲東擊西; pinyin: Shēng dōng jí xī)

    ENEMY DEALING STRATAGEMS

  7. Create something from nothing
    (simplified Chinese: 无中生有; traditional Chinese: 無中生有; pinyin: Wú zhōng shēng yǒu)
  8. Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang
    (simplified Chinese: 暗渡陈仓; traditional Chinese: 暗渡陳倉; pinyin: Àn dù chén cāng)
  9. Watch the fires burning across the river
    (simplified Chinese: 隔岸观火; traditional Chinese: 隔岸觀火; pinyin: Gé àn guān huǒ)
  10. Hide a knife behind a smile
    (simplified Chinese: 笑里藏刀; traditional Chinese: 笑裏藏刀; pinyin: Xiào lǐ cáng dāo)
  11. Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree
    (Chinese: 李代桃僵; pinyin: Lǐ dài táo jiāng)
  12. Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat
    (simplified Chinese: 顺手牵羊; traditional Chinese: 順手牽羊; pinyin: Shùn shǒu qiān yáng)

    ATTACKING STRATAGEMS

  13. Stomp the grass to scare the snake
    (simplified Chinese: 打草惊蛇; traditional Chinese: 打草驚蛇; pinyin: Dá cǎo jīng shé)
  14. Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul
    (simplified Chinese: 借尸还魂; traditional Chinese: 借屍還魂; pinyin: Jiè shī huán hún)
  15. Entice the tiger to leave its mountain lair
    (simplified Chinese: 调虎离山; traditional Chinese: 調虎離山; pinyin: Diào hǔ lí shān)
  16. In order to capture, one must let loose
    (simplified Chinese: 欲擒故纵; traditional Chinese: 欲擒故縱; pinyin: Yù qín gū zòng)
  17. Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem
    (simplified Chinese: 抛砖引玉; traditional Chinese: 拋磚引玉; pinyin: Pāo zhuān yǐn yù)
  18. Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief
    (simplified Chinese: 擒贼擒王; traditional Chinese: 擒賊擒王; pinyin: Qín zéi qín wáng)

    CHAOS STRATAGEMS

  19. Remove the firewood from under the pot
    (Chinese: 釜底抽薪; pinyin: Fǔ dǐ chōu xīn)
  20. Catch a fish while the water is disturbed
    (simplified Chinese: 混水摸鱼; traditional Chinese: 混水摸魚; pinyin: Hún shuǐ mō yú)
  21. Slough off the cicada’s golden shell
    (simplified Chinese: 金蝉脱壳; traditional Chinese: 金蟬脱殼; pinyin: Jīn chán tuō qiào)
  22. Shut the door to catch the thief
    (simplified Chinese: 关门捉贼; traditional Chinese: 關門捉賊; pinyin: Guān mén zhōu zéi)
  23. Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbour
    (simplified Chinese: 远交近攻; traditional Chinese: 遠交近攻; pinyin: Yuǎn jiāo jìn gōng)
  24. Obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo
    (Chinese: 假道伐虢; pinyin: Jiǎ dào fá Guó)

    PROXIMATE STRATAGEMS

  25. Replace the beams with rotten timbers
    (simplified Chinese: 偷梁换柱; traditional Chinese: 偷梁換柱; pinyin: Tōu liáng huàn zhù)
  26. Point at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust tree
    (simplified Chinese: 指桑骂槐; traditional Chinese: 指桑罵槐; pinyin: Zhǐ sāng mà huái)
  27. Feign madness but keep your balance
    (simplified Chinese: 假痴不癫; traditional Chinese: 假痴不癲; pinyin: Jiǎ chī bù diān)
  28. Remove the ladder when the enemy has ascended to the roof
    (Chinese: 上屋抽梯; pinyin: Shàng wū chōu tī)
  29. Deck the tree with false blossoms
    (simplified Chinese: 树上开花; traditional Chinese: 樹上開花; pinyin: Shù shàng kāi huā)
  30. Make the host and the guest exchange roles
    (simplified Chinese: 反客为主; traditional Chinese: 反客為主; pinyin: Fǎn kè wéi zhǔ)

    31. DEFEAT STRATAGEMS

  31. The beauty trap (honey trap)
    (simplified Chinese: 美人计; traditional Chinese: 美人計; pinyin: Měi rén jì)
  32. The empty fort strategy
    (simplified Chinese: 空城计; traditional Chinese: 空城計; pinyin: Kōng chéng jì)
  33. Let the enemy’s own spy sow discord in the enemy camp
    (simplified Chinese: 反间计; traditional Chinese: 反間計; pinyin: Fǎn jiàn jì)
  34. Inflict injury on one’s self to win the enemy’s trust
    (simplified Chinese: 苦肉计; traditional Chinese: 苦肉計; pinyin: Kǔ ròu jì)
  35. Chain stratagems
    (simplified Chinese: 连环计; traditional Chinese: 連環計; pinyin: Lián huán jì)
  36. If everything else fails, retreat
    (simplified Chinese: 走为上; traditional Chinese: 走為上; pinyin: Zǒu wéi shàng)

Since you may have forgotten the question after reading through and contemplating all of those, I was wondering why the Defeat Strategies only have three characters, while the rest have four?

Anybody who has studied Chinese will know that the four character pattern is a very common pattern used in Chinese (and Japanese) for idioms.

Source: Wikipedia

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Berlusconi and the 34th Stratagem

Filed Under: China, Philosophy, Politics by admin — Leave a comment
December 25, 2009

While the world ponders the authenticity of the recent attack on Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, it is worth remembering the 34th Stratagem from the 36 Stratagems: Secret Art of War:

Inflict injury on oneself to win the enemy’s trust

I hadn’t heard about The 36 Strategems until reading through The Wu-Tang Manual
, which my housemates got me for Christmas (thanks guys!).  Fascinating book, I’m impressed by how much the RZA has read and studied.

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Let there be…snow

Filed Under: Beijing, China, Science by tknows — Leave a comment
February 20, 2009

Snow on the Great WallChina ended a drought with the use cloud seeding technologies? This article thinks the technology is unproven. Still very interesting.

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Non Performing Loans (the United States’s turn)

Filed Under: Business, China, Economics, Malaysia by tknows — 1 Comment
September 20, 2008

Recent developments in financial markets made me remember a post I wrote over a year ago while studying in Malaysia at Sunway College. I never finished the post but was fascinated by this issue after first learning about it in China then discovering that Malaysia had been through the same thing.

With the US Federal Reserve now stepping in to take on non performing loans of the industry, I thought it was a good time to post this. Perhaps the US should be talking to China and Malaysia for some tips on what to do with all this bad debt!

Originally written sometime between February and June 2007.
=================================================

Being that I am a student of economics, I thought I should write something related to economics for a change. So, today I want to write a bit about NPLs or Non-Performing Loans. There is no real theme to what I am going to write, just wanted to give people an introduction to them and highlight some cases from China and Malaysia.

Now, in a buoyant economy where confidence is high, the preponsity for banks and other lending agencies to make loans is usually greater. This means that credit is often easier and cheaper to come by. The flip side of this is that business and investment deals which may not be as viable are often lent money, which, when things go bad, is not repaid. Since banks always back their lending with security of some sort, they would usually make a claim on this. In residential scenarios, this means foreclosing on a property (see the current subprime issue in the US) and recovering the amount of the loan outstanding from the sale of the property (if property prices haven’t deflated too). In the commercial arena, this usually means taking ownership over a business or business/investment assets. These are often harder to dispose of because they can often require more ‘hands on’ management in terms of extracting some value. Needless to say, they can cause significant problems to lenders asset and cash flow position, which can compromise the entire organisation where NPLs are high.

Such is/was the case in many countries, but given my experience, we will look at China and Malaysia.

In China, with banks incurring huge amounts of NPLs due to lax lending policies./

China – Asset Management Companies (AMCs)

Malaysia – Danaharta

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The boot is on the other foot

Filed Under: China by tknows — Leave a comment
September 17, 2007

But it doesn’t kick as hard, or make as much noise:

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/6263494.html

Admittedly it’s not as bad as lead paint in childrens toys, but there are reasons for that which go beyond the surface.

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Aussie dies in BBeijing

Filed Under: China by tknows — Leave a comment
September 17, 2007

Don’t know if anyone has seen this in the news:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mystery-over-big-brother-stars-death/2007/09/16/1189881342307.html

Apparently he was on some drugs and being ‘anti-drugs’, it has been assumed that he was given whatever this substance was against his will or without his knowing it.

Weird story, I’m trying to find out what club he died in since there aren’t all that many in Beijing, at least not for a city of 15 million.

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Toys are a serious thing

Filed Under: China by tknows — Leave a comment
September 13, 2007

You may have heard about the product recalls of Mattel toys in the last few weeks. From what I know, the paint used on the toys contained lead, which is banned for obvious reasons. Now, while we just see that the toys are recalled, and hear that it was a problem with a chinese factory which used the paint, these two articles highlight another side to the issue which might get overlooked.

5000 workers at the factories lose their jobs, the boss committed suicide:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6948274.stm

Cost cutting pressure from foreign companies is often the cause of any problems such as this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6969035.stm

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Consumerism = De-forestation

Filed Under: Australia, China, Economics, Environment, Society by tknows — 3 Comments
June 11, 2007

We often hear about the deforestation occurring throughout the world usually in far away places such as Brazil or Indonesia (ok, not so far away). This problem is often seen (by myself at least) as being remote and a problem to be solved in the countries facing the problems by increased economic growth and education.
However, an interesting article in Scientific American highlights that most of the unsustainable and illegal logging is occurring as a result of demand tracing back to developed countries and companies. Perhaps we as consumers need to pay more attention to what we are buying and where it comes from.

In this regard, I think companies need to provide more information in the way of product provenance details. On the example of trees and timber (although it applies to many commodoties in our world), think of all the furniture in Melbourne shops such as Myer, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and other smaller retailers. How many of those stores are aware that the products they import (in the case of Officeworks, 95% of furniture comes from China) are directly linked to the unsustainable destruction of forests?

This also highlights another problem with our current society, the importance of low cost competition. Because let’s face it, we all love the fact that we can buy a $59 leatherette chair from Officeworks. In fact, I bought a table from Officeworks which for all I know traces it’s origin back to illegal logging half-way around the world. And let’s say one of the giant retailers took the lead and decided to make sure it’s suppliers only used sustainable timber (and let consumers know just how and why it was sustainable), how would this affect the price? It’s fair to say that most consumers would opt for the $79 chair – with no questions asked – over the $139 chair which uses sustainable and legal materials. The sad part is that these same people would probably go home after buying such a product and shake their heads at the rapid loss of our forests.

I would like to see more information provided to consumers on where their products come from in Australia. We have had it for food and drinks for many years. Now it is time for it to be applied to many other products.

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Cost comparison

Filed Under: China, Economics, Malaysia, Society by tknows — Leave a comment
February 22, 2007

Thought I would keep some sort of list of price level differences between Malaysia(KL) and China(Beijing).

– Hmm, how to do this without tables, curse you tableless design… –

Food

Overall, China is cheaper for foods ranging from cheap, everyday street style baozi, through to western restaurants.  The cheapest I’ve found street food here is maybe 3RM($1.11AUD) for plain Nasi Goreng, in China, a steamer of dumplings was Y3($0.50AUD).  Oh, and Korean is like 3 times as expensive here which sucks, Bibimbap costs about $7 here, was only $2.80 in Beijing.  But, overall there is alot more choice here, so it compensates in some way.

Transport

Beijing easily wins here as far as busses are concerned, with one-way bus trips coming as low as $0.035AUD (student price, regular $0.067AUD), KL a Bus ride will set you back anywhere from $0.30-$1.00AUD. Trains are hard to compare but roughly the same, costing $0.50AUD in Beijing in a hop-on-hop-off system which is different to KL’s stop based system, to go maybe 5 stops will set you back about $0.60AUD.

As for taxies, I would say they are about the same, perhaps KL comes in a little cheaper, meter starts at $1.60 in Beijing, $0.75in KL.  However, a cavaet is involved with KL, it’s only cheaper if you can get them to use the meter, which they rarely do.  So far, every Indian driver who’s cab I have taken (well, planned to take) refuses to use the meter, at which point I hop out.  The only times I’ve used meters is with Malay drivers, who have all started the meter as soon as I finished saying the destination.  So, I tend to look out for the Malay drivers now, they have given me a good impression so far.  Oh, and to give an example of how much you could get ripped off, a cab driver told me it would be RM25 to go to my destination, I didn’t bargain which you should do so i’m sure it would get lower, but I couldn’t be bothered.  Afterwards, using the meter it cost RM5.5.

Actually KL could learn alot from Beijing in regards to Taxis.  In Beijing, every cab driver has their identification with name/photo on the dashboard. Beneath this they have the company they work for, and the number for the complaints line.  If drivers attempt to cheat you in Beijing , you just pretend (or actually do) write down their number, or begin dialing the telephone number.  They almost always come around and work things out amicably. ;)
Accommodation

Housing in Beijing is actually very expensive, more expensive than KL, well, for basic type stuff that I want, like any modern city, you can pay wat you want… ahh, this is taking too long, finish it another day…

Other

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New years eve happenings

Filed Under: Beijing, China by tknows — 1 Comment
January 24, 2007

Although it’s a little late, I thought I would write something about what I got up to on New Years Eve here in BJ.  Don’t get too excited though I didn’t stay up all night and watch the sunrise while sipping champagne on the great wall (come to think of it that would have been fun).

First, I went with some classmates to Sizzler – yes, it still exists, I will post a picture of it soon as proof.  You will probably remember it as a sub-par chain restaurant where the all you can eat salad/dessert bar came with free hair, skin flakes and on weekends salmonella.  Well ok, perhaps not that bad, but I don’t exactly recall fondly my dining experiences there.  However, in China Sizzler is actually pretty good, especially the all-you-can-eat salad bar.  Although the meals are somewhat expensive and small, because the salad bar is good it makes up for it.

Anyhoo, after dinner we thought something might be happening at either Tiananmen Square or Wangfujing st, so we first headed down to Tiananmen to see what was happening. I should say that before the night my housemate had told me there was nothing interesting in those places but I didn’t listen :P .  We arrived at Tiananmen sqr. to find it blocked off so you couldn’t enter, and there were police and sort of security guards around to make sure people didn’t jump the temporary fencing.  Actually I’m not too surprised they are not keen to encourage a gathering of mostly young, and perhaps roudy, youth to that particular location.  Moving on, we decided to head to Wangfujing (plan b).  This was also mostly a fizzer.  There were lots of groups of other foreigners floating around on the night, it seemed like we were all in search of Beijing’s New Years ‘Shangri La’ that was nowhere to be found.

We ended up spending the countdown to 2007 in Wangfujing surrounded by a few other groups of strangers – but by all means not a times-square sort of atmosphere.  There is a reasonably large clock in Wangfujing so we all watched that as the final minutes ticked down to the new year.  It was funny actually because although the bell rang a few times and there was some cheering and elation.  It must have been about 5 minutes after 12 when the lights all went out.  Then a couple of minutes later a cop car rolled down the street to make sure no hooliganism had broken out (I guess).  But they should be commended for doing their jobs, I saw them make someone put out a sparkler which could have posed a risk to other revelers *note sarcasm*.

Nonetheless, it was a ‘different’ New Years Eve and although it would have been good to have had a bit more atmosphere, – and perhaps fireworks – I’m sure I will get my dose of that come Chinese New Year.

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