Stratagem

A stratagem is a plan or scheme to deceive (see Stratagem (deception)). It derives from an Anglicized spelling of the Greek and Latin word for strategy.

Stratagem or Stratagems or Strategema (Greek and Latin spelling) may also refer to:

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Stratagems (Frontinus)

Stratagems (Latin: Strategemata) is a work by Frontinus, a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, ostensibly for the use of generals. Frontinus is assumed to have written Strategems towards the end of the first century AD, possibly in connection with a lost work on military theory.

Frontinus is best known as a writer on water engineering, but he had a distinguished military career. In Stratagems he draws partly on his own experience as a general in Germany under Domitian. However, most of the (more than five hundred) examples which he gives are less recent, and similarities to versions in other Roman authors like Valerius Maximus and Livy suggest that he drew mainly on literary sources.

The work consists of four books, of which three are undoubtedly by Frontinus. The authenticity of the fourth book has been challenged.

References

External sources

Thirty-Six Stratagems

The Thirty-Six Stratagems was a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction.

Origin

The name of the collection comes from the Book of Qi, in its seventh biographical volume, Biography of Wáng Jìngzé (王敬則傳／王敬则传). Wáng was a general who had served Southern Qi since the first Emperor Gao of the dynasty. When Emperor Ming came to power and executed many members of the court and royal family for fear that they would threaten his reign, Wáng believed that he would be targeted next and rebelled. As Wáng received news that Xiao Baojuan, son and crown prince of Emperor Ming, had escaped in haste after learning of the rebellion, he commented that "of the thirty-six stratagems of Lord Tán, retreat was his best, you father and son should run for sure." Lord Tán here refers to general Tan Daoji of the Liu Song Dynasty, who was forced to retreat after his failed attack on Northern Wei, and Wáng mentioned his name in contempt as an example of cowardice.