Let's talk about "Thirty-six Strategies": The book was written late, and the novel was mistaken for historical fact

In military struggles, it is inevitable that many conspiracies and tricks will be used, and there is a saying in "The Art of War" that "soldiers use deception to establish themselves", and Mr. Li Ling also used this sentence as the title of his book on the study of "The Art of War".

In the Book of Changes, nine is used to represent yang, and six is used to represent yin. Therefore, things related to intrigue and intrigue are often also linked to the number "six". For example, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Chen Ping, Sima Qian said that there were "many conspiracies" and that he had "six strange schemes", but what were the specific six schemes? Sima Qian did not say that the descendants made up six things, but in fact, it is not excluded that there is a possibility, so it is impossible to determine which six things they are, but when it comes to conspiracies and tricks, then six.

Sixty-six thirty-six, thirty-six strategies, thirty-six strategies, thirty-six strategies...... This kind of statement may have been produced quite early. "The Book of Nanqi: The Biography of Wang Jingze" said: "Tan Gong's thirty-six strategies, go for the best plan." This is the statement of the Thirty-six Strategies, which was first recorded in the record, and in fact there are probably even earlier, but it is not seen today. But the thirty-six strategies here are obviously imaginary, that is, the meaning of many strategies, and the "Thirty-six Strategies" that we can read today are not the same thing at all.

"Thirty-six Strategies" was written very late

When it comes to the book "Thirty-six Strategies", we can probably determine a few points:

First, it must have been created very late.

Before modern times, there was no major bibliography that mentioned this book.

China has a tradition of compiling bibliographies. There are official acts, the most famous ones like the "Seven Strategies", like the "Siku Quanshu General Catalogue", and there are also private catalogues. Especially in the Qing Dynasty, learning has been done very inwardly, and scholars have worked very carefully, but there is still no kind of bibliography that mentions such a "Thirty-six Strategies".

This shows that either no one in the world has ever seen this kind of book, or someone has seen this kind of book, but thinks it is too low-grade, so no one mentions it.

Some people think that the thirty-six strategies were written by Tan Daoji because of the sentence "Tan Gong Thirty-six Strategies" quoted above, Tan Gong refers to the famous general Tan Daoji during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which is impossible. In the book "Thirty-six Strategies", many of the cases cited were only in the Yuan Dynasty, so the book "Thirty-six Strategies" was born no earlier than the Yuan Dynasty, and from the perspective of language style, it is likely to be as late as the Qing Dynasty or even modern times.

In 1941, someone found a manuscript of "Thirty-six Strategies" at a bookstall in Pixian County, Shaanxi, which was typeset on clay paper by Chengdu Xinghua Printing House that year, which is the source of the "Thirty-six Strategies" we read today. But after that, the influence of "Thirty-six Strategies" spread like wildfire, and it can really be said to be a household name. In terms of the actual influence among the people, it may really surpass "The Art of War", because there is a threshold for reading "The Art of War", although there are some pretentious and mysterious words in "Thirty-six Strategies", but there is no threshold for reading the main content, and now there are indeed publishing houses that publish it as a "classic of Chinese culture".

The author of "Thirty-six Strategies" does not have a high level of education

Second, the author of the book "Thirty-six Strategies" does not have a high level of education.

The names of the thirty-six schemes are like robbing while the fire is burning, closing the door to catch thieves, fishing in troubled waters, striking grass and startling snakes, taking sheep by the hand, diverting tigers from the mountains, pointing at mulberry and scolding Huaihuai, going to the house to draw ladders, and striking east and west...... It's all folk sayings.

In order to explain these sayings, the author gives some examples. Literate people don't give this example.

Take the first plan of the thirty-six plans "Concealing the Sky and Crossing the Sea", this day refers to the Son of Heaven, specifically Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.

The related story is like this: Tang Taizong wanted to go east, but when he got to the sea, he saw the white waves, he was afraid, afraid of seasickness, and even more afraid of capsizing and drowning in the sea, so he didn't want to go. At this time, a person suddenly came, claiming to be a rich man living by the sea, and invited Tang Taizong to his house as a guest. Tang Taizong went with hundreds of officials, only to see this family, there was no end on both sides of the gate, and they were blocked by colorful curtains. Tang Taizong didn't think much about it, this was showing off his wealth. I entered the door, went to the room, and began to drink and feast. After drinking for a long time, Tang Taizong suddenly felt that the floor was shaking, and his ears were full of the sound of wind and waves. Tang Taizong instructed me to open the curtain, and when I opened it, I found that I was on a boat and had gone to sea for a long time.

The emperor of Tang was afraid of the sea, so his civil and military officials thought of such a plan, tricked him into the ship, went to sea, and forced him to persist in the Eastern Crusade. That's why it's called "hiding from the sky and crossing the sea".

Tang Taizong knew underground, and when he heard this story, the coffin board was probably uncontrollable. How can I tell you that I am a soft egg who is afraid when I see the wind and waves on the sea? This echoes a point that we have repeatedly emphasized when we talk about "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Folk tastes like to talk about good emperors as useless, and it is precisely because they still recognize you that you are a good emperor that they want to make you useless. So Liu Bei was weakened, there is really nothing to complain about, can you compare to Tang Taizong? You are useless to shape "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" again, it is still more useful than this Tang Taizong, right?

"Thirty-six Strategies" puts this strategy in the first article, which shows that he is a lover of folk literature and art, and regards folk tales as historical facts.

Take "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as a historical fact

There are many similar examples, pick a few stories of the Three Kingdoms in "Thirty-six Strategies" and talk about them briefly:

The thirty-third plan "anti-intermittent plan", saying that "Zhou Yu used Cao Cao's spies to intermittently be his generals", which is about Jiang Gan's book theft by the Qunying Society, and Cao Cao killed Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.

There was no such thing as Jiang Gan stealing books in history, and Cao Cao felt that Zhou Yu was young and talented, and thought that he could be poached from Sun Quan's side. So he sent a man named Jiang Gan to lobby Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu showed Jiang Gan how generous Sun Quan was to him and how loyal he was to Sun Quan. Jiang Gan is also a clever figure, and when he saw this situation, he knew that there was no need to talk nonsense, so he smiled, went back without saying anything, and praised Zhou Yu to Cao Cao. This is a typical master's move, and you don't need to really do it to know whether you win or lose.

Cao Cao also did not kill Cai Mao and Zhang Yun. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", when the local faction in Jingzhou surrendered to Cao Cao, Cai Mao was not a particularly active figure, so after Cao Cao took Jingzhou, when he sent officials, Cai Mao did not rank high. But Cai Mao and Cao Cao are old acquaintances, and Cao Cao also visited Cai Mao's house, and you have nothing to do with official affairs, but we can talk about personal friendships.

The whole thing here is the canon of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", not history.

Next, in the thirty-fourth "bitter meat plan", Zhou Yu beat Huang Gai, and in the thirty-fifth "serial plan", Pang Tong tricked Cao Cao into locking up all the warships. - Looking at it this way, the author of "Thirty-six Strategies" is really familiar with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and he really regards "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as history.

The death of the society in ancient times

A cultural person regards "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as history, which means social death in ancient times.

The Qing Dynasty compiled the "Siku Quanshu" and collected a wide range of books, but popular novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", of course, other novels, operas and the like, were resolutely not accepted. Ji Xiaolan, the ministers of the four libraries, compiled the bibliography and added words to the book. This work is very heavy, so you need to complain and relax from time to time, such as when it comes to the "Tongshan Old Peasant Anthology" written by Lu Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty, he made such a comment:

The text is also quite narrow, or it is not correct. For example, there is a sentence in "Wu'an Wangmiaoji Welcoming Words" that "Lan Pei is under the Gui flag and takes the red rabbit from Zhoucang". The name of Zhou Cang is not known in history, and it is engraved with the slang of the lane, which is very elegant.

The gist of it is: This person has limited knowledge and is not rigorous in research, for example, he wrote a Guan Yu theme, and came with a sentence of "riding the red rabbit from Zhou Cang", Zhou Cang is not in the history books, why do you mention him on a serious occasion? It's too undignified.

That is to say, he thinks that it is a shame to use allusions from the Three Folk Kingdoms in his official works, but on the other hand, he is also familiar with the Three Kingdoms. Otherwise, he should doubt himself: I haven't heard of Zhou Cang, is it that I haven't paid attention to which horn in the "Three Kingdoms" has mentioned it? It shows that the folk story of the Three Kingdoms was passed on to everyone at that time, but people who thought they were literate would deliberately avoid mentioning him.

Let's take another particularly unlucky example: there was an official named Luculent who once gave a lecture to Emperor Yongzheng and said that "he is as bright as Zhuge Liang, but he still misuses Ma Tan, and his ministers dare to act recklessly". A person like Zhuge Liang who is discerning also has times when he misuses Ma Tan, which shows that it is difficult to recommend talents, and I dare not recommend them blindly.

This sentence angered Emperor Yongzheng, and the treatment of Luculent was to be dismissed, put in a flail for three months, and whipped one hundred.

Why did you make the emperor angry like this, Yongzheng said, how can you mention "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in the song?

Luculent is wronged, Zhuge Liang's misuse of Ma Jian is not only in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but also in the original text of "Three Kingdoms". Your Majesty's instructions reveal that you are familiar with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but you have not read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", so you will treat the things recorded in the history books as fictional "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". But do you dare to explain to Emperor Yongzheng? I am such a man, thunder, rain and dew are all Jun'en, I just misunderstood and hit you by mistake, right?

In short, these examples all reflect the attitude of the ancient upper class society, who are both familiar with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or the folk Three Kingdoms, and superficially avoid it. A blatant high-profile quote of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" like "Thirty-six Strategies" and the belief that this is historical will definitely not be the work of cultural people.

Is "Thirty-six Strategies" a military book?

Third, let's talk about the position of the "Thirty-six Strategies" in the mainland's military writing tradition.

If you want to say which one is the most important, there is no one, it is, of course, the thirteen chapters of "The Art of War".

The scope has expanded a little, since the Song Dynasty, the most respected military books include the so-called "Seven Books of Wujing", "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Wu Zi's Art of War", "Liutao", "Sima Law", "Three Strategies", "Wei Xuanzi", and "Li Weigong Asks Right".

In addition to the seven books of the Martial Classics, there are of course very well-written military books. For example, there is also a group of articles on military affairs in "Mozi", which are full of details about how the army should be organized; Reading this kind of military book and "The Art of War" is not the same feeling at all: reading "The Art of War" is facing a somewhat ferocious and interesting soul; facing "The New Book of Ji Xiao" is like facing a man with a resolute face and a body full of tendons, feeling a strong power and a huge sense of oppression.

However, in the catalogue of any military book, the "Thirty-six Strategies" will not be included. First, it is likely that the book did not exist in the past, and second, even if it did, it would not be looked upon by traditional scholars.

In other words, this book has no place in the tradition of military writing.

Now some people call "The Art of War" and "The Thirty-six Strategies" together, and even mistakenly think that the "Thirty-six Strategies" are from the "Art of War", but in fact they are completely different things.

Many famous generals like to claim that their way of using troops comes from "The Art of War", whether it is true or not, he is willing to be close to "The Art of War". Or someone who reads "The Art of War" and reads it stupidly, talking about the defeat of the war on paper, and you can also give a bunch of such examples. But "Thirty-six Strategies" is different, whether it is positive or negative, it just has no impact.

epilogue

"Thirty-six Strategies" can be popular, but it has nothing to do with the military, and it has to do with the belief that "shopping malls are like battlefields", "officialdom is like battlefields", and "love is like battlefields...... All kinds of scenes such as battlefields are related to people.

The 36 strategies are divided into victory strategy, enemy battle strategy, attack strategy, melee strategy, battle strategy, and defeat strategy, which seems to have a very systematic sense...... Its various characteristics are very much in line with the needs of mass communication.

More importantly, the successive cultural innovations since the May Fourth New Culture Movement have not overthrown traditional culture, but they have disrupted the chain of contempt in traditional culture, and the reason why literati looked down on "Thirty-six Strategies" in the past does not exist for many readers today, which follows a similar law to the change in the status of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Liu Bo

Editor-in-charge: Chen Bin