Use when building multi-state coalitions or diplomatic alliances against a dominant threat. Applies Su Qin's 合纵 strategy — analyzing each party's geography, military strength, and fears, then proposing concrete mutual defense terms with specific obligations per member.
Use when prioritizing between competing strategic targets or evaluating conquest options. Weighs prestigious targets (symbolic resources like the nine tripods) against practical targets (territorial expansion) using feasibility, consequence, net benefit, and reputation criteria.
Use when managing uncollectible debts or converting financial obligations into political capital. Categorizes debtors by ability to pay, publicly burns uncollectible debt documents at a community gathering, and frames forgiveness as investment in loyalty and reputation rather than loss.
Use when facing coordinated disinformation or slander campaigns targeting your reputation. Identifies warning signs of bribery and planted criticism, and outlines defensive measures including transparent communication and alliance-building.
Use when persuading a powerful adversary to change their military or political course of action. Employs historical analogies, risk analysis, and alternative alliance proposals to redirect an opponent's strategy.
Use when identifying and cultivating undervalued political figures for long-term gain. Follows Lu Buwei's 奇货可居 method: assess investability, provide resources, influence gatekeepers, and secure commitment from promising candidates.
Use when persuading powerful figures by appealing to their long-term self-interest. Analyzes the target's vulnerabilities (aging, lack of heirs, fading influence), formulates warnings, and presents solutions that create mutual benefit.
Use when persuading officials or leaders by aligning your proposal with their self-interest. Demonstrated by Kuai Tong and Li Yiji, this technique researches the target's fears, frames problems objectively, and presents solutions that benefit the listener.
Use when designing military incentive structures to motivate troops and encourage enemy defections. Establishes tiered rewards by enemy rank (大将 to 千石), defection incentives for surrendering units, and multiplier systems for credible payouts.
Use when distributing monetary rewards or resources received in an official capacity. Ensures fairness and loyalty by publicly displaying resources, allowing self-selection by subordinates, and keeping nothing for personal use.
Use when building deep military loyalty and unit cohesion. Shares hardships, distributes rewards equitably, and leads by example to create soldiers willing to follow into the most dangerous engagements.
Use when assessing regime stability by distinguishing 土崩 (popular uprising from mass discontent) versus 瓦解 (elite rebellion with military resources). Prioritizes popular sentiment analysis over elite threat management.
Use when evaluating official performance or deciding promotions and demotions. Implements a three-year cycle assessment over nine years, using documented achievements to determine advancement (陟) or removal (绌).
Use when managing large-scale water control projects, river dredging, or land drainage. Follows Yu the Great's methodology for surveying terrain, selecting transportation, developing waterways, reclaiming flooded land, and coordinating regional labor.
Use when planning river navigation routes or developing drainage channels. Maps nine major river systems from source to terminus, guides dredging, embankment construction, and integration into tribute transportation networks.
Use when organizing conquered or acquired territories into centrally-administered counties (县). Covers territory assessment, settlement consolidation, official appointment, and administrative standardization. Based on Qin's 41-county system under Shang Yang.
Use when building chronological tables (世表, 年表, 月表) to organize historical events across dynasties. Synchronizes multiple polities, marks gaps, and adds commentary on patterns of rise and fall (兴坏之端).
Use when leading during extreme crisis (siege, famine, disaster) and follower morale is collapsing due to resource disparity. Redistributes personal luxury resources to followers, enlists family members in support roles, forms elite volunteer units, and leads from the front to restore fighting spirit.
Use when organizing a coordinated multi-state military uprising. Based on Wu Wang Pi's Seven States Rebellion mobilization, covers command structure, conscription parameters, allied coordination, reward hierarchies, and financial backing.
Use when planning military campaigns from intelligence through post-victory consolidation. Covers terrain assessment (知水草处), supply logistics for 60,000+ troops, alliance coordination, siege tactics, and garrison establishment (置使者护田积粟).
Use when issuing pre-battle proclamations, enforcing military discipline, or organizing logistics. Based on Bo Qin's oath at Bi: covers equipment inspection, rules of conduct (no looting, return lost property), supply requirements, and enforcement penalties.
Use when negotiating for survival under threat of execution or hostage situations. Restructures hostage transactions by demonstrating a living captive's leverage value, sequencing agreements to protect all parties, and buying time for allied intervention.
Use when evaluating territorial concessions or appeasement strategies against aggressive neighbors. Applies the 抱薪救火 (carrying firewood to extinguish fire) framework to expose why each concession emboldens further demands and weakens negotiating position.
Use when breaking deadlocks in stalled negotiations or forcing immediate commitment from a dismissive counterparty. Employs physical proximity to neutralize power imbalance, reframes the deal as serving their interests, invokes historical precedent, and demands on-the-spot formalization (blood oath).
