Peace and War

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

2.4

Word count: 266 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

"Peace and War" is a treatise on military strategy recorded in the ancient Chinese military classic *Baizhan Qilue* (A Hundred Battles, A Hundred Strategies), intended to explain how to use "peace negotiations" in coordination with military operations. It holds that in fighting an enemy, one must first feign peace talks in order to lull the enemy, then, seizing the moment when the enemy is lax and unprepared, strike with elite troops and so defeat him. This chapter cites the *Art of War*: "To seek peace without prior agreement means there is a plot." According to the *Shuowen* and *Jiyun* glosses, "agreement" (yue) implies being cornered or thwarted; the whole sentence means that an enemy who comes seeking peace of his own accord before being cornered must have some other design. The experience of ancient warfare shows that victory in military strategy is often inseparable from the close coordination of political strategy, and feigned peace talks were a key strategic device frequently used by strategists to confuse and lull the enemy. Yet the skilled commander should not only be good at using "feigned peace" to support military offensives and win battles, but even more at recognizing the enemy's "feigned peace" plots so as to thwart his war aims. Only thus can one always stand on invincible ground.

Editor's review

Though brief, "Peace and War" distills the core wisdom of ancient Chinese military thought: that political strategy must work in concert with military action. Taking the "peace and war" strategy recorded in *Baizhan Qilue* as its framework and the *Art of War* line "To seek peace without prior agreement means there is a plot" as its focal point, it reveals a seemingly counterintuitive proposition: an enemy who sues for peace is not necessarily showing weakness—more likely, he is setting a trap. The text explains both how to use feigned peace to lull an opponent and strike at his openings, and how to see through an enemy's feigned peace and guard against trouble before it arises; combining offense and defense, it displays the depth of dialectical thinking in ancient strategy. For today's readers, the value of this text goes beyond military history: it also offers lessons for negotiation, competition, and strategic games, asking readers to look not only at surface gestures but at the real motives behind them. This Bashu Press edition makes the original accessible to general readers and serves well as an auxiliary text for an introduction to military thought and for training strategic thinking; it is short and light, and repays repeated reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginning readers interested in ancient Chinese military texts and military thought
Managers seeking material on strategic games and negotiation thinking
Readers of the *Art of War* who wish to explore related military literature
Lovers of short classical Chinese texts who enjoy close, sentence-by-sentence reading

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting analyses of modern warfare or hands-on tactical manuals
Beginners with no grounding in classical Chinese who are unwilling to consult annotations
Readers seeking a general history of military thought rather than a single treatise

Reading tips

Read the original through once, then compare it with the relevant lines in the *Art of War* to grasp the logic behind "To seek peace without prior agreement means there is a plot."
As you read, list the conditions for employing "feigned peace" and the signs for recognizing it, and try to turn them into your own strategic checklist.
Connect it with historical battles and with everyday negotiation scenarios, and consider what real intentions may lie behind surface concessions.
It is short enough to reread in two or three sittings, each time focusing on one angle: using the tactic, recognizing it, and guarding against it.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
和战

FAQ

Is "peace and war" about favoring peace or favoring war?

It is neither simply pro-peace nor pro-war. It treats "peace talks" as a means of supporting military operations: on the one hand, feigning peace talks to lull the enemy; on the other, guarding against the designs behind an enemy's own overtures for peace. The core is the mutual coordination of political strategy and military action, not a choice between war and peace.

How should "To seek peace without prior agreement means there is a plot" be understood?

According to the *Shuowen* and *Jiyun* glosses, "agreement" (yue) carries the sense of being cornered or thwarted. The whole sentence means: an enemy who comes seeking peace of his own accord before being cornered must have some other design. This reminds readers that a posture of seeking peace may itself be a tactic, and that judging the enemy requires looking not only at surface moves but at whether his position makes such a move plausible.

What practical use does this treatise have for ordinary readers?

It offers a two-way habit of mind: learning to use peace talks to seize the initiative when needed, and learning to recognize the motives behind others' unsolicited shows of goodwill. In negotiation, competition, and cooperation, the habit of asking "why is the other side conceding now?" helps one avoid being misled by surface gestures and make sounder judgments.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.