make a feint to the east but attack in the west(shēng dōng jī xī)

make a feint to the east but attack in the west

As a Chinese idiom, sh ē NGD ō NGJ ī x ī is one of the 36 stratagems, which is a kind of tactics to make the opponent have the illusion to win by surprise. In real life, it is mentioned very frequently. It deceives the enemy with fake actions and covers the main force to hit the key at the first time. What you say is the East, but what you say is the West.

The strategy of attacking the West from the East comes from Huainanzi · Bing Lue Xun. It has been well known by military experts of all ages, so we must fully estimate the enemy's situation when using it. Although the method is one, it is changeable.

Make a difference to the east standard packing in the West.

Idiom explanation

It means to attack the East, but actually attack the West. It is a kind of tactics that makes the opponent have the illusion to win by surprise. On the surface, it claims to attack the East, but in fact it attacks the West. A military tactic that gives the enemy the illusion. It is said in the sixth military chapter of Tongdian: "it is said to strike the East, but in fact it strikes the West." Song Zhang Gang's "Qixiu warship Zhazi" said: "the situation is unpredictable, the left is real, the right is false, the East strikes the West." Chapter 18 of outlaws of the Marsh: "Lei Heng also wanted to save Chao Gai, so he tried to beat the back door first. But Zhu Tong said that he had to beat his front door. He deliberately made such a fuss and tried to force Chao Gai to leave." Yuan Miao and others wrote in the Xinhai Revolution credit investigation record that "it was the night revolutionary party that planned to set up an incident from Hankou at twelve o'clock, making it difficult for Wuchang to prepare." The fourth chapter of Mao Zedong's "strategic issues in the Anti Japanese guerrilla war" is: "we often have to take ingenious methods to deceive, lure and confuse the enemy, such as attacking the East and the west, South and North, attacking and leaving at once, and acting at night." 2. Describe the change of action, speech, writing, etc. Li Yu of the Qing Dynasty wrote in Yu Sao tou · talking about martial arts: "when he was allowed to attack the west, he would hide his head and show his tail. I should defend myself from all sides." Sun Li's dandingji: Notes on reading works: "his language adopts the techniques of long-term parallelism, parallel couplets up and down, and the combination of new and old words. Sometimes it contains Zhuangzi in harmony, sometimes it contains Zhuangzi in harmony, striking the West with the East, accompanied by true and false, cadence and endless changes." [word explanation] sound: sound. [idiom usage] combined; used as predicate, object and attribute. [Tongyun CI] the period of the Guadai Dynasty, the practice of medicine in xuanhu, persuading all kinds of people to satirize one's health, neglecting one's food, inconsistent government orders, consistent heart and mouth, missing the opportunity, mixed good and bad, green and delicate

English explanation

Make a effect to the East but attack in the West; any attack is made in one direction to diversion from the quarter where there is a latack to be made; conseal (their) intensions and tricks where (they) will; feel and predict East while in reality attacking West. With lighting feint, one after another pair finally seizedhold and fight.

The origin of Idioms

"Huainanzi · Bing Lue Xun" says: "therefore, the way to use military force is to show it to be soft and to meet it, to show it to be hard, to show it to be weak and to multiply it, to show it to be strong, to show it to be soft and to respond to it, to show it to be Zhang, to show it to be West and to show it to be east,..." Du you of Tang Dynasty said in the sixth military chapter of Tongdian: "it's said to attack the East, but it's actually the West." In the biography of Gao Min in the history of Song Dynasty, such as Yuan Tuotuo, it is said that "when it comes to military strategists, the East will attack the West."

Examples of Idioms

Shu people or ~, point the south to attack the north, our soldiers must be divided. Chapter 111 of romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong in Ming Dynasty.

Idioms and allusions

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, ban Chao was sent to the western regions to unite the western regions against the Xiongnu. In order to make it easier for the countries in the western regions to fight against the Xiongnu, the North-South passage must be opened first. Shache Kingdom, located in the western edge of the desert, incited the neighboring small countries to submit to Xiongnu and oppose the Han Dynasty. Ban Chao decided to calm Shache first. Shache King North to Qiuci for help, Qiuci king personally lead 50000 people, rescue Shache. Banchao united with Khotan and other countries, with only 25000 troops. We are outnumbered and hard to defeat. We must outwit them. Ban Chao then made a plan to attack the West and confuse the enemy. He sent people to spread dissatisfaction with ban Chao in the army, making it impossible to win Kucha and showing signs of withdrawal. And especially let the Shache captives hear clearly. At dusk, ban Chao ordered the Khotan army to retreat to the East. He led his troops to retreat to the West. On the surface, he was flustered and deliberately let the prisoners escape. The prisoners fled back to Shache camp and reported the news of the hasty retreat of the Han army. Kuci Wang Daxi mistook ban Chao for being afraid of himself and fled in a hurry. He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to pursue ban Chao. He immediately ordered the soldiers to divide into two routes to pursue the fleeing enemy. He personally led 10000 elite troops to the west to pursue ban Chao. Ban Chao had a plan in mind. He took advantage of the darkness to cover the desert, retreated only ten miles, and his troops hid on the spot. King kuci was eager to win and led his pursuers to fly past banchao's hiding place. Banchao immediately assembled his troops, and with the East Khotan people and horses agreed in advance, quickly returned to fight against Shache. Ban Chao's troops such as from the sky, Shache caught off guard, quickly disintegrated. The king of Shache was so frightened that he couldn't escape that he had to surrender. King Qiuci chased away all night, but there was no sign of ban Chao's troops. He heard that Shache had been calmed down and that the casualties were a little heavy. The situation was over, so he had to pick up the remains and return to Qiuci.

Historical allusions

original text

The enemy's wills are disorderly extracted, and the enemy's wills are not in danger. The image of the enemy's wills is mixed with the image of the enemy's wills, and the enemy's wills are taken involuntarily.

annotation

① Di Zhi Luan Cui: quoted from the hexagram "Xiang" in the book of changes · Cui: "it is chaos that is Cui, its Zhi Luan also" means. Cui, gaunt, that is gaunt. The enemy is confused and haggard. (2) unexpected: unexpected. ③ Kunxiadushang: cuigua is a combination of different hexagrams (kunxiadushang). The upper hexagram is DUI and Dui is Ze; the lower hexagram is Kun and Kun is earth. There is the image of flooding the earth and flooding. ④ If the enemy can't grasp his own direction of advance, which is beneficial to us, he should take the opportunity to attack the enemy. This plan is to use the image theory of the hexagram of "Kun Xia Dui Shang" to explain that "the enemy's ambition is in disorder", resulting in a situation of numerous mistakes and perils. I have to seize the enemy's uncontrollable chaos, flexibly use the tactics of time, East and West, like fighting, like leaving, showing it to attack without attacking, and showing it not to attack if I want to attack, so as to further create the enemy's illusion and surprise Win.

Notes

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Seven Kingdoms rebelled against each other, and Zhou Yafu did not fight. When the soldiers of Wu ran to the southeast of the wall, Yafu prepared for the northwest, but the king of Wu had already attacked the northwest, so he was not allowed to enter. The enemy's ambition is not disordered, and he can go away by himself. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhu Jun surrounded the yellow scarf in Wan, Zhang Wei built a fortress, started from the earth mountain to the city, and beat the drum to attack the southwest of the town. Huang Jin learned that people were going there, and Jun covered the northeast of the town with 5000 elite troops, so he took advantage of the situation. This enemy's ambition is disorderly, so it is not dangerous. However, the strategy of attacking the West from the East depends on whether the enemy's will is in disorder or not. Chaos leads to victory; if it is not chaos, it will lead to failure, which is a dangerous strategy.

source

Shengdongjixi is selected from the thirty six stratagems or thirty six stratagems, which refers to the thirty-six tactics of Military Science in ancient China. It originated from the northern and Southern Dynasties and was written in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a Book of war based on the excellent military thought and rich struggle experience in ancient China. It is one of the long cultural heritages of the Chinese nation. "Thirty six stratagems" was written before the year of the book, and its etymology can be traced back to tan Daoji, the general of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty? In 436 AD), according to the biography of Wang Jingze in the book of the Southern Qi Dynasty, "the Thirty-six Strategies of Tan Gong are the best. Your father and son should only listen." It means that the defeat is certain and irreparable. Only to retreat is the best policy. In Song Dynasty Huihong's lengzhaiyehua: "thirty six stratagems, walking is the best stratagem.". At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, more people quoted it. So people with a heart collected books and compiled "thirty six stratagems". However, it is difficult to know when and who wrote this book. the original book is divided into six sets according to its title, namely, victory plan, enemy plan, attack plan, melee plan, merge plan and defeat plan. The first three sets are used for advantages, and the last three sets are used for disadvantages. Each set contains six pieces, a total of 36 pieces. The explanation after the name of each plan is based on the change of yin and Yang in the book of changes and the transformation of the antagonistic relations between the ancient strategists, such as hardness and softness, Qi Zheng, attack and defense, self, virtual reality, subject and object, which contains the elements of simple military dialectics. The notes after the explanation mostly cite the war cases before the Song Dynasty and the brilliant sentences of Sun Wu, Wu Qi, Wei Liaozi and other strategists. There are also general remarks and postscripts in the book. Thirty six stratagems are the summary of ancient Chinese strategists' stratagems and the precious heritage of military strategy. In order to facilitate people to memorize these thirty-six stratagems, a scholar composed a poem in order: Jinyu Tangong stratagem, in order to catch robbers, fish and snakes laughing in the sea, sheep and tiger, peach and mulberry separated, trees dark and crazy

Chinese PinYin : shēng dōng jī xī