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三十六计英文-Thirty-Six Stratagems 28. Remove the ladder after the ascent 三十六计
三十六计英文
29. Putting fake blossoms on the tree
All warfare is based on deception.
Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive;
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
-- Sun Tzu, from Section One, "Laying Plans," Art of War.
If the above quotation is true, then it is also true that when you are weak, you
must appear strong to the opponent.
As I wrote in Letters to a Great Lady I had the opportunity to explain the
concepts of warfare to a very refined, wealthy woman whose husband had
publically humiliated her after having admitted to an affair to her. After she
made the decision to divorce him, he harassed her and stalked her and continued
to do things in public to embarrass her. When I first wrote to her, she was
afraid even to sit across a table from him and speak to him face to face. She
had a lot of inner resolve though, and up to that point had met his ridicule
with stony and dignified silence. I used Miyamoto Musashi's excellent treatise,
The Book of Five Rings in conjunction with Sun Tzu to teach her how to relax in
front of her husband and thus unnerve him by her sudden courage.
After a few months of weekly communication with me on these ideas, she had to
meet him again in a legal setting. And though inwardly she dreaded it, she had
practiced the art of accepting his bad behavior without acquiescing to it or
trying to force him to change it. She realized that he would never be sorry for
the pain he had caused her, nor had he ever genuinely loved her. But she stopped
fighting these things and simply accepted them. Thus, in his presence, when he
accused her of this or that or tried to ridicule her, she would simply say
things like, "Well, I accept that you have this opinion of me, and it's okay
because it demonstrates that I need to divorce you." No matter how outrageous
his remarks, she softly turned everything he said to support her actions and
decisions until he lost his temper and started yelling at her, frustrated
because he could no longer control her emotions.
She still found him to be dreadful, and she never felt at ease when she had to
face him. But by hanging the blossoms of the truths she had learned thus far on
the branches of her demeanor, speech, and carriage, she thwarted him and made
him feel that he was losing control of her. And this, of course, was what he
dreaded most.
A beautiful golden goat of the fabled species was contentedly wandering through
the semi-wild glens near her home pastures, when a great fierce tiger jumped out
onto the path before her.
Now this goat was golden-fleeced and had huge blue eyes and very winning ways,
but to the tiger, she smelled like food, and that was all he cared about. So he
opened his mouth wide and yelled (since tigers have to boast about every single
thing they do), "I'm the great and ferocious Tiger, and you are my next meal!"
And then he called her a lot of names that I won't type. (Tigers also berate
their prey. Insults are like appetizers to them.)
The beautiful goat said, "Oh please, fierce tiger! Don't eat me! Spare me! Spare
yourself!" she said on sudden inspiration.
This checked him. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Speak up or I'll bite off your
leg!"
"I am a goat very treasured by the gods," she told him, making things up as she
went along. "Don't you see how lovely I am? The gods have set their mark on me."
"Lovely Shmovely!" he shouted at her. "There's only food that's fit to eat and
food that's not fit to eat, and you're food that's fit to eat!"
"But if you harm me, the gods will punish you dreadfully," she said. And she
shed many tears from her beautful blue eyes. She was really crying from fear for
herself, for she didn't think she could convince him not to eat her. But he
supposed she was crying out of genuine concern for him and what the gods might
do to him. (Tigers are self-absorbed, loud, brash, vain, and always driven by
appetite. Do you know anybody like that?)
"How do I know this isn't a trick?" he asked. "Speak up, or I'll eat your ears
right off your head!"
Once again, the little goat thought quickly, with a remarkable insight that
showed she had more enlightenment than she gave herself credit for. "Oh mighty
Tiger, if you want to see how the gods have set their mark on me, just follow me
up the path and see what happens," she said.
"If I let you go up the path, you'll run away!" he snapped.
"No, you can follow closely, just a pace or two behind," she told him.
"All right, show me what happens when you walk up the path!" he growled.
So she trotted ahead of him by only two paces, and she was sweating and
trembling the whole way. This, of course, made her smell more like food to him
than ever, and he kept his eye fixed right on her to make sure she didn't run
away.
But then he realized that, as beautiful goat was walking up the path, all of the
other animals---the squirrels, rabbits, birds, even the foxes! Took one look at
her and raced out of her way, diving for cover. Every single creature scattered
and hid as she approached. The forest became very silent and still. And he
realized that everything with eyes was staring at her from under cover. He began
to be frightened, and he felt that he'd made a dreadful mistake.
At last he stopped her and said, in a much more respectful voice, "You're right.
The gods must have their mark on you." And he raced away before the gods could
strike him down for all the nasty things he'd said to her at first.
So beautiful goat was left in peace, and she ambled back to her safe pastures.
Now, of course, the animals had fled at sight of Tiger right behind goat, and
the more curious had dared to stare at the awful sight of Tiger only one or two
paces behind his prey. But it didn't occur to gentle goat to brag about her
cleverness. She just wanted to get to her fragrant and soft clover and visit her
flowers, for goat loves beauty and peace.
But a rat watched the whole thing, and *he* told everybody.
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