The body is lean: dense bullet points of principles with necessary Classical-Chinese translations, no padding explaining concepts Claude already knows. The brief Overview and Expected Outcomes are minor but not verbose. Not a 2 because nothing here is unnecessarily explained or could be meaningfully tightened without losing substance.

Provides concrete, specific decision rules — grain thresholds (20 hurts farmers, 90 hurts merchants, optimal 30-80), explicit inventory rules ("腐败而食之货勿留", "无息币", "无敢居贵"), and a clear buy/sell counter-cyclical directive. For an instruction-only strategy skill this is concrete and specific guidance; absence of code is not penalized per the scoring notes.

Though principle-based rather than a multi-step process, content is well-organized into clear numbered sections and closes with an explicit Verification checklist ("Confirm...", "Validate...", "Check...") serving as validation checkpoints. The simple-skills note permits a 3 for clear, well-organized single-purpose content, and verification steps are present.

Self-contained (~55 lines) with no bundle files and no need for external references; sections are well-organized and self-signaling. The under-50-lines / no-external-references note allows a 3 on well-organized sections alone.

Lists multiple concrete capabilities — "counter-cyclical buying (旱则资舟水则资车)", "price cycle recognition", "inventory rules for perishables", and "the four merchant virtues (智勇仁彊)" — rather than vague language. Not a 2 because these are specific, named concepts with concrete Chinese referents, not just a domain label.

Explicitly answers both questions: an explicit "Use when applying ancient Chinese trading principles" trigger plus a concrete list of what it covers. Matches the good-example pattern of "action list + Use when clause".

Includes relevant terms a domain-aware user might say ("ancient Chinese trading principles", "白圭/计然 method", "counter-cyclical buying"), but leans on specialized jargon and misses common natural variations like "buy low sell high", "market timing", or "inventory management". Not a 3 because coverage of plain-language triggers a general user would say is incomplete; not a 1 because several genuinely relevant keywords are present.

The 白圭/计然 niche with its specific Chinese phrases is highly distinctive and unlikely to fire for unrelated skills. No overlap risk with generic commerce or document skills.