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The Thirty-Six Stratagems
The 36 Stratagems is a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics and in war, as well as in civilian life, often through unorthodox means. Approximately 300 years ago an unknown scholar compiled the stratagems, a strangely seductive meditation on deception. The stratagems are ordered in categories according to your current position. ‘Advantageous Stratagems’, ‘Opportunistic Stratagems’ and ‘Attacking Stratagems’ are used when you are in a winning situation. ‘Confusion Stratagems’, ‘Deception Stratagems’ and ‘Desperate Stratagems’ are used when you are in a disadvantageous or losing situation. These strategems can be combined in various ways as they are not intended to be used alone, nor are they only applicable in purely a winning or purely a losing situation. So how can the three hundred year old ideas of an unknown Chinese scholar provide help with the strategic challenges we face today? In this brilliant interpretation, this ancient text is transformed into a practical guide for the 21st century business executive or politician. By interpreting the lessons of The 36 Stratagems this handy, authentic, realistic approach shows how we can defeat the opponents we face in our business and personal lives. But there is no ‘win win’ scenario in The 36 Stratagems. Winner takes all!
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 6, 2020
The CHINESE Thirty-Six Stratagems are interesting.
On the other hand, Peter Taylor's analysis, comments and suggestions are the most moronic thing I ever read in my life!
As a good brainwashed North American, his examples are almost always about corporations.
As a good brainwashed North American, he doesn't understand the Chinese text he was supposed to explain to us.
He is dumb enough to see US Terror Army occupying Afghanistan as the "good guys", while seeing the Afghans tired of US illegal occupation as "wolves in sheep's clothes"!!!
How dare you Peter Taylor to inverse the roles there?
How dare you Peter Taylor to spoil a great Chinese text with your arrogant ignorance?
(Jomtien, Thailand)
On the other hand, Peter Taylor's analysis, comments and suggestions are the most moronic thing I ever read in my life!
As a good brainwashed North American, his examples are almost always about corporations.
As a good brainwashed North American, he doesn't understand the Chinese text he was supposed to explain to us.
He is dumb enough to see US Terror Army occupying Afghanistan as the "good guys", while seeing the Afghans tired of US illegal occupation as "wolves in sheep's clothes"!!!
How dare you Peter Taylor to inverse the roles there?
How dare you Peter Taylor to spoil a great Chinese text with your arrogant ignorance?
(Jomtien, Thailand)
February 24, 2019
While the Stratagems themselves are useful, Taylor's commentary is difficult to sift through. There are a few grammatical issues and typos, which make the book harder to read, and he fails to properly transition from each case study. His commentary reads like a rushed ramble, as though he wrote the entire book in one sitting the day after he was supposed to send it to his publisher.
August 15, 2018
Three stars. Some of the "current" examples were dated.
The highlights and commentary on the Jocko podcast were better than the book itself (episode 132: HOW TO WIN IN BATTLE, BUSINESS, AND LIFE WITH THE 36 “STRATEGEMS.” THE SPIRIT OF WU).
The highlights and commentary on the Jocko podcast were better than the book itself (episode 132: HOW TO WIN IN BATTLE, BUSINESS, AND LIFE WITH THE 36 “STRATEGEMS.” THE SPIRIT OF WU).
May 24, 2020
Good but too few examples
Very short book .. would be good if more examples are given on application of strategem .. and some of the stories given do not really relate to the strategem ..
Very short book .. would be good if more examples are given on application of strategem .. and some of the stories given do not really relate to the strategem ..
September 9, 2026
' Never interrup your enemy when he is making a mistake ' ~Napoleon Bonaparte
The examples chosen to illustrate the stratagems where really poorly matched. Nevertheless, strategies itselves are worth a peek. All of them are intertwined and useful on different situations.
Advantage
1. A human is a creatures of habit, break it. Bonus points if you are able to create a veil of normalcy around the change. Do sth out of character.
2. Attack sth valuable to your opponent. Not neccessarily the weakness and not the strongest point. E.g. feeling about sth
You can create the spot to attack.
3. Use assets/strength of the third party. Persuade that it is for greater cause and all is done. E.g. sew a seed of mistrust between your competition
4. Choose a place and time. Dont let sb rush you. Its better when its him who is unsure of when the confrontation will happen.
5. Make an opportunity out of ones crisis. Think about what he dont want to lose and how much value it has to him.
6. Create an element of surprise. Change direction at the past moment.
Opportunity
7. Create an illusion to your advantage.
8. Start preparing for a long way to archive sth and quickly take a circuit. A brain has limited attention span, make use of it and misdirect.
9. Be the third person who gains benefis from fight between other two.
10. Charm and exploit. 'Keep your friends close, but enemies closer,
11. 'Sacrifice a pawn to save a rook, e.g. give an unimportant information to gain na important one.
12. Be aware of small profits along the way to the ultimate goal.
Attack
13. Provoke an enemy to act in order to get an insight into his strategy. Scare/surprise/anger/rush him to gain informations.
14. Find a forgotten truth, mold it to your advantage and make an 'ad autoritatem' argument.
15. Lure your oponent out of ambush he prepared for you and attack before he backed off. He will be more vulnerable outside of his comfort zone.
Identify wheir strength and deprive them of it, ideally make it your own.
16. Give an injured prey hope that it is not the end and it wont attack with all its power. Take into account morale.
17. Tempt with something useless to gain sth you want and that has value. Diminish value of what he has and exaggarate what you have.
18. Aim for the most powerful figure that keeps everything together. Let enemie's ranks perish. Stray their attention to sth and make his leadership neutralised.
Confusion
19. Destroy the source of your issue.
20. Create confusion to cloud the vision, make him stop to think. You gain time and an opportunity.
21. Mask your distinctive features, make yourself disappear, while working on a comeback. Don't show that you are far better organized than it might look like.
22. Cut off all of enemie's ways of escape before you attack. Consider all possible outcomes and create back-up plans.
23. When you are the leader, the most dangerous is the second the strongest. Another leader is your ally.
24. Befriend your enemy against shared opponent, then use your 'friends' resources to destroy them too.
Deception
25. Disrupt your competitors rules to destabilize his. Make him play by your rules that doesnt support their strength. Implement new manners that will be destroying him.
26. Dont use names directly. Innuendo makes arguments against you harder to construct without over-explaining situation. Make the 'truth' (or a rumor) not come from you.
27. Hide behind the mask of someone incompetent, overlyfriendly or compassionate to hide your intentions. Make others underestimate you with overconfidence.
28. Lure somebody to stretch efforts, enter treacherous arena and then cut off contact and the way of escape. Let situation destroy him.
29. Use disguise to artificially make sth that lacks value appear valuable, of no use useful or of no threat dangerous. Hide your strength and capabilities.
30. Order to take some responsibilities, learn the process and then attack to become leader. Make your enemy focus on sth else. In the meantime, take over what youve gained power over.
Desperation
31. Tempt by something desirable to cause attention of the important matters to slip. Make your opponent fight internally or make him embarassed.
32. Act calmly in situations of desperation, as if you are well prepared. Be mysterious.
33. Cause discord in your enemies ranks. He will be occupied by settling disputes there.
34. Pretend you are injured. Let him relax, lure them into ambush or make them an ally against shared enemy.
35. Link strategies together to make more complex plans. Make more steps to your plan.
36. If nothing works, referat and regroup. It is not always wideo to be overly stubborn. When choosing from surrender, compromise and escape or in other words defeat, half-defeat or a break, choose break.
The examples chosen to illustrate the stratagems where really poorly matched. Nevertheless, strategies itselves are worth a peek. All of them are intertwined and useful on different situations.
Advantage
1. A human is a creatures of habit, break it. Bonus points if you are able to create a veil of normalcy around the change. Do sth out of character.
2. Attack sth valuable to your opponent. Not neccessarily the weakness and not the strongest point. E.g. feeling about sth
You can create the spot to attack.
3. Use assets/strength of the third party. Persuade that it is for greater cause and all is done. E.g. sew a seed of mistrust between your competition
4. Choose a place and time. Dont let sb rush you. Its better when its him who is unsure of when the confrontation will happen.
5. Make an opportunity out of ones crisis. Think about what he dont want to lose and how much value it has to him.
6. Create an element of surprise. Change direction at the past moment.
Opportunity
7. Create an illusion to your advantage.
8. Start preparing for a long way to archive sth and quickly take a circuit. A brain has limited attention span, make use of it and misdirect.
9. Be the third person who gains benefis from fight between other two.
10. Charm and exploit. 'Keep your friends close, but enemies closer,
11. 'Sacrifice a pawn to save a rook, e.g. give an unimportant information to gain na important one.
12. Be aware of small profits along the way to the ultimate goal.
Attack
13. Provoke an enemy to act in order to get an insight into his strategy. Scare/surprise/anger/rush him to gain informations.
14. Find a forgotten truth, mold it to your advantage and make an 'ad autoritatem' argument.
15. Lure your oponent out of ambush he prepared for you and attack before he backed off. He will be more vulnerable outside of his comfort zone.
Identify wheir strength and deprive them of it, ideally make it your own.
16. Give an injured prey hope that it is not the end and it wont attack with all its power. Take into account morale.
17. Tempt with something useless to gain sth you want and that has value. Diminish value of what he has and exaggarate what you have.
18. Aim for the most powerful figure that keeps everything together. Let enemie's ranks perish. Stray their attention to sth and make his leadership neutralised.
Confusion
19. Destroy the source of your issue.
20. Create confusion to cloud the vision, make him stop to think. You gain time and an opportunity.
21. Mask your distinctive features, make yourself disappear, while working on a comeback. Don't show that you are far better organized than it might look like.
22. Cut off all of enemie's ways of escape before you attack. Consider all possible outcomes and create back-up plans.
23. When you are the leader, the most dangerous is the second the strongest. Another leader is your ally.
24. Befriend your enemy against shared opponent, then use your 'friends' resources to destroy them too.
Deception
25. Disrupt your competitors rules to destabilize his. Make him play by your rules that doesnt support their strength. Implement new manners that will be destroying him.
26. Dont use names directly. Innuendo makes arguments against you harder to construct without over-explaining situation. Make the 'truth' (or a rumor) not come from you.
27. Hide behind the mask of someone incompetent, overlyfriendly or compassionate to hide your intentions. Make others underestimate you with overconfidence.
28. Lure somebody to stretch efforts, enter treacherous arena and then cut off contact and the way of escape. Let situation destroy him.
29. Use disguise to artificially make sth that lacks value appear valuable, of no use useful or of no threat dangerous. Hide your strength and capabilities.
30. Order to take some responsibilities, learn the process and then attack to become leader. Make your enemy focus on sth else. In the meantime, take over what youve gained power over.
Desperation
31. Tempt by something desirable to cause attention of the important matters to slip. Make your opponent fight internally or make him embarassed.
32. Act calmly in situations of desperation, as if you are well prepared. Be mysterious.
33. Cause discord in your enemies ranks. He will be occupied by settling disputes there.
34. Pretend you are injured. Let him relax, lure them into ambush or make them an ally against shared enemy.
35. Link strategies together to make more complex plans. Make more steps to your plan.
36. If nothing works, referat and regroup. It is not always wideo to be overly stubborn. When choosing from surrender, compromise and escape or in other words defeat, half-defeat or a break, choose break.
May 29, 2020
I came across this explanation of the 36 Stratagems when the original text came to my attention.
I understand the pattern now that when it comes to historical treatises such as the original text, it will be more common to find an interpretation and exegesis of the work rather than the raw work itself. I can understand this to some extent as perhaps the original text did not have enough to comprise a modern day book, or perhaps the meaning of the original translated word for word into English would not convey the meaning the Author intended so long ago.
As such, my rating for the book is not a rating for the 36 Stratagems themselves, but for this interpretation and explanation of them.
The Stratagems themselves are sound and some a little more obvious than others, but I am a strong believer in that even if only 5% of a book is beneficial, that 5% can benefit and change your life.
Some of the examples given for the Stratagems in the book seem very irrelevant and there were one or two points where I questioned how they related to the strategy at all. I feel like the Author just followed a strict rule of giving 1/2 Business examples, a historical Chinese example and maybe another one here and there for each strategy. As such it is easy to miss the message or to feel disconnected from the book of you are not familiar with American history/businesses or Chinese history.
Despite that however, the book was beneficial in that it was succinct, to the point and just enough explanation was given to drive the point home. Brevity is a strong point of this book. If you want to familiarise yourself with these Stratagems, this isn’t a bad place to start but there is room for improvement.
Similar books would be the much heavier 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene.
I understand the pattern now that when it comes to historical treatises such as the original text, it will be more common to find an interpretation and exegesis of the work rather than the raw work itself. I can understand this to some extent as perhaps the original text did not have enough to comprise a modern day book, or perhaps the meaning of the original translated word for word into English would not convey the meaning the Author intended so long ago.
As such, my rating for the book is not a rating for the 36 Stratagems themselves, but for this interpretation and explanation of them.
The Stratagems themselves are sound and some a little more obvious than others, but I am a strong believer in that even if only 5% of a book is beneficial, that 5% can benefit and change your life.
Some of the examples given for the Stratagems in the book seem very irrelevant and there were one or two points where I questioned how they related to the strategy at all. I feel like the Author just followed a strict rule of giving 1/2 Business examples, a historical Chinese example and maybe another one here and there for each strategy. As such it is easy to miss the message or to feel disconnected from the book of you are not familiar with American history/businesses or Chinese history.
Despite that however, the book was beneficial in that it was succinct, to the point and just enough explanation was given to drive the point home. Brevity is a strong point of this book. If you want to familiarise yourself with these Stratagems, this isn’t a bad place to start but there is room for improvement.
Similar books would be the much heavier 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene.
December 26, 2025
I personally loved The Thirty-Six Stratagems, and this modern interpretation does a solid job of bringing those ideas into a contemporary context.
Are all of Peter Taylor’s modern interpretations perfect? No. As other reviewers have pointed out, he’s not operating at the level of someone like Robert Greene, and some of the anecdotes and explanations feel weaker or less refined. A few modern examples could have been sharper or better chosen.
That said, the book is absolutely good enough to move past those flaws. It’s not all bad—far from it. Taylor provides several genuinely interesting case studies that can be meaningfully compared to the original ancient stratagems, and when it works, it really works. The strategic principles themselves are rock solid.
I’m giving this book 5 stars. While the modern interpretations needed some tightening, the underlying advice is strong and timeless. It’s a book I would revisit, and overall it offers valuable insights for business, politics, and life.
Are all of Peter Taylor’s modern interpretations perfect? No. As other reviewers have pointed out, he’s not operating at the level of someone like Robert Greene, and some of the anecdotes and explanations feel weaker or less refined. A few modern examples could have been sharper or better chosen.
That said, the book is absolutely good enough to move past those flaws. It’s not all bad—far from it. Taylor provides several genuinely interesting case studies that can be meaningfully compared to the original ancient stratagems, and when it works, it really works. The strategic principles themselves are rock solid.
I’m giving this book 5 stars. While the modern interpretations needed some tightening, the underlying advice is strong and timeless. It’s a book I would revisit, and overall it offers valuable insights for business, politics, and life.
July 24, 2019
I enjoyed this book. It is easy to read and one gains quick insights into the stratagems without delving too deep into each one. Following each stratagem, the author gives some modern examples and thoughts on how to implement the stratagem in question.
April 21, 2020
Very relevant examples, which helped me to understand the strategems better. The writing and grammar could be tighter, several typos and very windy sentences
January 11, 2021
Interesting suggestions.
March 27, 2022
93/100
5 stars - 90/100
4 stars - 80/100
3 stars - 70/100
2 stars - 60/100
1 star - 50/100
5 stars - 90/100
4 stars - 80/100
3 stars - 70/100
2 stars - 60/100
1 star - 50/100
July 27, 2023
The timeless wisdom of the original 36 stratagems remains unchallenged, but Peter's commentary is idiotic hence 3-stars.
May 11, 2014
Pretty interesting, but too much fact-driven and lacks the deep insight of Sun Tzu's Art of War
March 22, 2015
The little explanatory stories were fun to read, although I had trouble relating some of them back to the stratagem under discussion.
Read
November 6, 2017I liked the stratagems with the stories.
"Fool the Sky to Cross the Sea"
"Kill With a Borrowed Knife"
"Pretend to Take One Path While Sneaking Down Another"
"Play Dumb While Remaining Smart"
"Inflict Injury on Oneself in Order to Win the Enemy's Trust"
and my two favorites:
"Hide a Knife in a Smile"
"Run away"
"Fool the Sky to Cross the Sea"
"Kill With a Borrowed Knife"
"Pretend to Take One Path While Sneaking Down Another"
"Play Dumb While Remaining Smart"
"Inflict Injury on Oneself in Order to Win the Enemy's Trust"
and my two favorites:
"Hide a Knife in a Smile"
"Run away"
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews