at large the better to apprehend him(yù qín gù zòng)

at large the better to apprehend him

Play hard to get: Catch: catch; let go: let go. Deliberately let him go first, so that he relaxed his guard, fully exposed, and then caught him.

Playing hard to get is the 16th of the thirty-six tactics of the art of war. The original text is: "if you force, you will fight back; if you go, you will reduce your strength. Don't be forced to follow, tired of its strength, eliminate its fighting spirit, scattered and then captured, bloodless. We need, we need, we need If you force the enemy to have no way to go, he will fight back; if you let him escape, he will weaken his momentum. When pursuing the enemy, we should not force him too much to consume his physical strength and destroy his fighting spirit. When the enemy is demoralized and defeated, we can catch him again to avoid bloodshed.

According to the principles of the hexagram in the book of changes, if the enemy is convinced that he has completely failed in psychology, he will win a bright war outcome. There is the movie "hard to get" with the same name.

Thirty six strategies

original text

If you force, you will fight back; if you go, you will reduce your strength. Don't be forced to follow closely, tired its strength, dissipate its fighting spirit, disperse and then catch, the soldiers don't have blood. Need, have Fu, light.

notes

① If you force, you will fight back. If you walk, you will lose momentum. If the enemy is forced to enter too tightly, he may fight back. If he is allowed to escape, his momentum will be reduced. 2 bloodless blade: Blood blade, blood stained blade. There is no blood on the weapon. (2) need, you fu and Guang: the language comes from the hexagram of need in the book of changes. Need, hexagram name. This hexagram is a superposition of different hexagrams (qianxiakan). The lower hexagram is dry for heaven, and the upper hexagram is ridge for water, which is the image of rainfall. It also symbolizes the existence of a kind of danger (because "kan" has the meaning of danger). We have to break through it, but we have to be good at waiting to break through the danger. "Need", waiting. The hexagram words in the book of changes: need, enjoyment and light enjoyment. We are sincere. Light, broad. To be good at waiting, to be sincere (including patience), there will be good luck. English Translation: leavesb.atlargethebettertoapprehendhim ； allowsb.morelatitudefirsttokeepatighterreinonhimafterwards ；lettheenemyoffinordertocatchhimlater；playcatandmouse(withsb.)；TheObjectofMyAffection；

analysis

In war, the only purpose is to destroy the enemy and seize territory. It is not advisable to force the "poor bandits" to jump over the wall in a hurry, to struggle to the death, and to lose their troops and land. To let him go does not mean to let the tiger go back to the mountain. The purpose is to let the enemy's fighting spirit gradually slacken and his physical and material resources gradually dissipate. Finally, his own side will look for opportunities to annihilate the enemy and achieve the goal of annihilating the enemy. Zhuge Liang's ultimate goal is to use Meng Huo's influence to stabilize the South and expand his territory. In military strategy, there are two words "change" and "constant". It's not usual to release the enemy commander. Usually, if you catch the enemy, you can't let it go easily to avoid future trouble. Zhuge Liang judged the situation, adopted the strategy of attacking the heart, and took the initiative in his own hands. This shows that Zhuge Liang is a rare military genius with foresight, adaptability and skillful use of the art of war. people often want to close the deal quickly, but if they want to do it quickly, they can't. When people accept a new thing, they need a period of time to adapt. The same is true of business talks. At the beginning, both sides tend to have some unrealistic ideas and hold various inherent opinions, hoping to achieve their goals smoothly. However, in the process of negotiation, both parties will suddenly wake up to the fact that the price expected by the buyer has become impossible, and the quick transaction expected by the seller has also become a bubble. It turns out that neither the buyer nor the seller can immediately adapt to these new and incomprehensible realities. Generally speaking, in the negotiation process, the buyer always needs enough time to consider accepting the unexpected high price, and the seller is never prepared to reduce the predetermined price at the beginning of the transaction, so it takes enough time for both parties to adapt to the situation before the final agreement can be reached. Therefore, both the buyer and the seller should put themselves in the other side's shoes and don't rush to force the other side to give in. In particular, many foreigners can't do business without bars. As long as you just set foot on each other's territory, they will be cordial reception. After a long and bumpy journey, you must think of finding a hotel to have a good sleep. However, as soon as you get off the plane or train, a beautiful public relations lady comes to welcome you and immediately tells you that she has arranged a wonderful night for you. It's no use telling her how tired you are. At this time, in order not to hurt her high enthusiasm, you have to do it obediently. At the dinner party, you eat well and drink well. You don't come back to the hotel until very late. You will be glad that you have really had a wonderful time. But the next morning, the negotiator invited you to the meeting. The negotiator begins to bargain with you one by one. At the moment, your sleepiness is still strong, your mind is not clear, and you will be easily conquered by the other party. Wait! Watch out for quick deals! To tell the other party I don't understand, I haven't thought about it.

source

"Playing hard to get" is selected from "thirty six stratagems" or "thirty six stratagems", which refers to the thirty-six military strategies 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: Jin Yu Tan Gong CE, in order to catch robbers, fish and snakes laughing in the sea, sheep, tiger, peach and mulberry separated, trees dark away, empty cauldron, beautiful corpses on the roof, attacking Wei Lian and Guo.

Historical examples

Shi Le is hard to get and Wang Jun is eliminated

In the Late Jin Dynasty, Wang Junqi, the governor of Youzhou, attempted to usurp the throne. After hearing the news, Shi Le, a famous general of Jin Dynasty, planned to destroy Wang Jun's troops. Wang Jun was so powerful that shile was afraid that he would not win for a while. He decided to use the strategy of "playing hard to get" to paralyze Wang Jun. he sent his disciple Wang Zichun to bring a large number of Pearl treasures to present to Wang Jun. He wrote to Wang Jun to show his support for the emperor. The letter says that the country is in decline, and there is no master in the Central Plains. Only you are powerful and qualified to be emperor. Wang Zichun added oil and vinegar to one side, which made Wang Jun feel happy and believe it. At this time, Wang Jun had a subordinate named you Tong, waiting for an opportunity to rebel against Wang Jun. You Tong wants to find shile as a backer, but shile kills you Tong and gives you Tong's head to Wang Jun. This move made Wang Jun absolutely feel at ease with shile. In 314 A.D., shile found out that Youzhou was flooded, and the people had no food. Wang Jun, regardless of the people's life and death, imposed exorbitant taxes and levies, which increased unabated. The people's resentment was boiling, and the morale of the army was floating. Shile personally led the troops to attack Youzhou. In April of this year, when shile's troops arrived in Youzhou City, Wang Jun was still in the dark. He thought shile was coming to support him as emperor and was not ready to fight. When he was suddenly captured by shile soldiers, he just woke up. Wang Jun was hit by shile's plan of "playing hard to get" and his dream came to nothing.

Su Mingming catches the thief

When Wu Zetian was in power, she once awarded Princess Taiping two boxes of delicacies, which were worth hundreds of gold. Princess Taiping took it and hid it in the Treasury, but it was stolen. The princess told Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian was very angry and ordered Luozhou to find out the thief within a time limit. In this way, the orders were issued at all levels, and fell on the heads of officials and patrolmen. They were limited to catch the thief within one day, otherwise they would be sentenced to death. The officials and patrolmen were afraid, but they couldn't find a good way. They met Huzhou on the road. They have heard for a long time that Su Mingming is very intelligent, so they ask him to help in the county. As soon as the magistrate appeared to be the Savior, he asked him how to catch the thief. Su Mingming asked the magistrate to meet Wu Zetian with him. Wu Zetian asked, "what can you do to catch the thief?" Su Mingming said, "if I'm allowed to catch the thief, then don't limit the date, don't hold the officials of the prefectures responsible, and let me command the robbers and the officials in the county,

Chinese PinYin : yù qín gù zòng