shiji-kb

Use when locating capable individuals who have withdrawn from public life. Covers intelligence gathering, informal approach, and relationship-building with reclusive talent in humble occupations.

Use when navigating credit for achievements that involved rule-breaking or complex loyalties. Guides appropriate demeanor, ritual humility, and relationship preservation after morally ambiguous successes.

Use when official channels block necessary military action to save an ally. Plans unauthorized intervention by leveraging debts, securing command assets, and executing swift action despite formal obstacles.

Use when recruiting capable individuals or retaining key advisors. Demonstrates respect through personal visits, public honors, and tests of sincerity to win loyalty from talented people regardless of status.

Use when building covert informant networks to gather intelligence on rival states. Covers agent placement, secure communication channels, and intelligence verification for strategic advantage.

Use when deciding whether to accept honors or rewards. Analyzes the true basis of your position—merit vs. relationship—and evaluates whether accepting creates contradictions that undermine legitimacy.

Use when assessing whether to enter peace talks or risk signaling weakness. Evaluates adversary incentives, ally perceptions, and negotiation leverage to determine if peace overtures will succeed or backfire.

Use when responding to territorial demands from a powerful adversary or deciding how to deploy contested resources. Redirects resources that would be conceded to the aggressor toward the aggressor's enemies instead, building counter-alliances that deter future demands and strengthen negotiating position.

Use when leading during extreme crisis (siege, famine, disaster) and follower morale is collapsing due to resource disparity. Redistributes personal luxury resources to followers, enlists family members in support roles, forms elite volunteer units, and leads from the front to restore fighting spirit.

Use when breaking deadlocks in stalled negotiations or forcing immediate commitment from a dismissive counterparty. Employs physical proximity to neutralize power imbalance, reframes the deal as serving their interests, invokes historical precedent, and demands on-the-spot formalization (blood oath).

Use when advocating for your own inclusion in a mission or opportunity after being overlooked. Applies the 'point in a sheath' (锥处囊中) metaphor — reframing obscurity as lack of opportunity rather than lack of ability, and requesting a chance for talent to emerge.

Use when experiencing talent attrition or when followers perceive hypocrisy between stated values and leader behavior. Diagnoses the root cause through direct inquiry, then requires a visible personal sacrifice to demonstrate that talent is valued above personal pleasures or possessions.

Use when recruiting team members or building an organization for unpredictable environments. Based on Mengchang Jun's (孟尝君) acceptance of unconventional talents — including 'dog thieves' and 'rooster imitators' — who proved invaluable when conventional skills failed in crisis.

Use when managing follower loyalty during adversity or processing feelings of betrayal after supporters depart. Applies the marketplace analogy (dawn crowds vs. dusk emptiness) to reframe departures as natural human behavior rather than personal betrayal, enabling magnanimous leadership.

Use when restoring a dismissed official to power or leveraging rival factions for political rehabilitation. Creates urgency by approaching rival powers with the dismissed leader's value, then returns to the original state with evidence of the rival's recruitment attempt to force restoration.

Use when managing uncollectible debts or converting financial obligations into political capital. Categorizes debtors by ability to pay, publicly burns uncollectible debt documents at a community gathering, and frames forgiveness as investment in loyalty and reputation rather than loss.

Use when evaluating whether to enter a powerful party's territory or accept an asymmetric alliance. Applies the earth puppet vs. wooden puppet parable to assess exit options, leverage once inside, and the risk of being trapped with no recourse in a 'tiger and wolf' (虎狼) state.

Use when hosting guests, managing dependents, or building loyalty through hospitality. Provides equal treatment regardless of status, records personal details via a scribe behind a screen, sends follow-up gifts to guests' families, and resolves perceived slights through transparent demonstration.

Use when evaluating siege feasibility or deciding whether to continue besieging a fortified city. Based on Xu Jia's advice against attacking Daliang (大梁) — systematically assessing defender strength, fortification quality, historical precedent, and cost of failure before committing.

Use when requesting assistance from a powerful party at negligible cost to them. Based on Su Dai's (苏代) candlelight metaphor — framing the request as sharing excess that costs nothing ('your candlelight has surplus; share it and lose nothing') to maximize willingness to help.

Use when evaluating whether a military action inadvertently strengthens rivals or when analyzing second-order strategic consequences. Based on Hu Yan's advice against attacking Pu — assessing whether success helps your enemies more than yourself and recommending alternatives when it does.

Use when securing a binding commitment before a long campaign where rivals may slander you in your absence. Based on Gan Mao's (甘茂) method — citing the tale of Zeng Shen's mother (曾参之母) to illustrate how repeated false accusations erode even deep trust, then extracting a formal pledge.

Use when entrusted with dangerous levels of military or political power by a suspicious ruler. Based on Wang Jian's (王翦) strategy — repeatedly requesting personal land, houses, and gardens to signal you seek wealth, not power, thereby reducing the ruler's fear of betrayal.

Use when commanding a large army against a determined enemy or planning patient siege warfare. Based on Wang Jian's (王翦) conquest of Chu with 600,000 troops — refusing battle, maintaining troop welfare through recreation and shared conditions, then striking when the enemy withdraws.

Use when persuading a reluctant subordinate or official to accept a dangerous assignment. Based on 12-year-old Gan Luo's (甘罗) method — comparing the target's status to predecessors who refused similar orders, then implying fatal consequences without direct threat.