The 48 Laws Of Power

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rectuntiltheendof

the

game,

whenthewinnercan

surroundthe

0ppo—

nent’sstonesatanaccelerated

pace.

Chinese

military

strategists

havebeeninfluenced

bygo

forcenturies.

Its

proverbs

havebeen

applied

towartime.and

again;

Mao

Tsemzng

was

anaddictof

wei-chi,

andits

precepts

were

ingrained

in

his

strategies.

A

key

wet‘-chi

concept,

for

example,

isto

usethesize

oftheboard

to

your

advan»

tage,spreading

outin

every

directionsothat

youropponent

cannotfathom

your

movementsina

simple

linear

way.

“EveryChinese,”

Mao

once

wrote,

“should

consciously

throw

himself

into

thiswarofa

jigsawpattern”against

theNationalists.Place

your

menin

ajigsawpattern

in

go,

and

youropponent

loseshimself

trying

to

figure

out

what

you

are

up

to.Eitherhewastestime

pursuingyou

or,

like

Chiang

Kai‘

shek,

heassumes

you

are

incompetent

andfailsto

protect

himself.Andif

heconcentrateson

single

areas,

asWestern

strategy

advises,

hebecomesa

sitting

duckforencirclement.In

the

weiwhi

way

of

war,

you

encirclethe

enemy’s

brain,

using

mind

games,propaganda,

andirritationtacticsto

confuseanddishearten.Thiswasthe

strategy

oftheCommunis(s—an

ap-

parent

foxmlessnessthatdisorientedandterrifiedtheir

enemy.

Wherechessislinearand

direct,

theancient

game

of

go

isclosertothe

kindof

strategy

thatwill

prove

relevantinaworldwhere

battlesare

fought

indirectly,

in

vast,

loosely

connectedareas.Its

strategies

areabstractand

multidimensional,inhabiting

a

planebeyond

timeand

space:

thesl:ratc~

gist’s

mind.Inthisfluidformof

warfare,

you

valuemovementover

posi-

tion.Your

speed

and

mobility

makeit

impossible

to

predictyour

moves;

unableto

understand

you,yourenemy

can

form

no

strategy

todefeat

you.

Insteadof

fixing

on

particularspots,

thisindirectformofwarfare

spreads

out,

just

as

you

canusethe

large

anddisconnectednatureoftherealworld

to

your

advantage.

Belikea

vapor.

Donot

giveyouropponentsanything

solidto

attack;

watch

as

they

exhaustthemselves

pursuingyou,trying

to

cope

with

your

elusiveness.

Only

formlessnessallows

you

to

trulysurprise

your

enemies—by

thetime

theyfigure

outwhere

you

areandwhat

you

are

up

to,

itistoolate.

When

you

wantto

fight

us,

we

don’tlet

you

and

you

can

’tfind

us.Butwhen

wewant

tofightyou,

wemakesurethat

you

can’z

getaway

andwehit

you

squarely.

..and

wipe

you

out.. ..The

enemy

advances,

we

retreat;

the

em.-my

camps,

we

harms;

the

enemy

tires,

we

attadc;

the

enemyretreats,

we

pursue.

Mao

Tkevtung.

18934976

KEYSTOPOWER

The human animalis

distinguishedby

itsconstant creationofforms.

Rarelyexpressing

itsemotions

directly,

it

gives

themform

through

lan-

guage,

or

throughsociallyacceptable

rituals.We

cannot

communicateour

emotionswithoutaform.

Theformsthatwe

create,

however,

changeconstandymin

fashion,

in