Mencius explains Shun wed secretly to preserve the essential marital bond, for his hostile parents would forbid it. Though aware of his brother’s murder plots, Shun sincerely trusted his feigned care; gentlemen fall for plausible pretense but not absurd falsehoods.
This story tells how strategist Sun Bin helped General Tian Ji beat King Wei in horse races. By rearranging horse tiers to sacrifice one round for two wins, it illustrates strategic trade-offs and instrumental rationality echoing Sun Tzu’s deceptive warfare thought.
by Han Fei Long ago, Duke Wu of Zheng wanted to attack the State of Hu.
–Mao Zedong, Spring 1964 Apes and men once bowed and took their leave;A few stones ground, our infancy weave.Furnaces flared with copper and steel’s bright sheen –When dawned that age? No guess is keen,But a thousand winters and summers green.