Beyond the Battleground: Classic Strategies from the Yijing and Baguazhang for Managing Crisis Situations

Beyond the Battleground: Classic Strategies from the Yijing and Baguazhang for Managing Crisis Situations

by Tom Bisio
Beyond the Battleground: Classic Strategies from the Yijing and Baguazhang for Managing Crisis Situations

Beyond the Battleground: Classic Strategies from the Yijing and Baguazhang for Managing Crisis Situations

by Tom Bisio

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Overview

Drawing on ideas from classical military strategy, the Yijing (Book of Changes), and Chinese martial arts theory, Tom Bisio presents a fascinating exploration of how insights from these sources can be deployed to manage crisis situations in all aspects of our daily lives. Suggesting approaches for cultivating a strategic mindset that can be applied to one's relationships, work, and personal self-fulfillment, Beyond the Battleground offers methods of adapting to circumstances, conserving one's own resources, and avoiding or dissolving conflict that will aid any reader navigating the uncertainties of the changing world, including the business person, military theorist, or martial artist. Deftly interweaving his background in East Asian philosophy and history and his career in traditional Chinese medicine with his lifelong interest in the martial arts and military science, Bisio also presents examples of successful strategies from history’s great commanders such as Sunzi, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Mao Zedong.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781623170066
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Publication date: 05/17/2016
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Bisio is the founder of New York Internal Arts and Internal Arts International, which teach and promote the Chinese Internal Arts of Ba Gua Zhang and Xing Yi. He is also the co-founder of Zheng Gu Tui Na, an organization that teaches traditional Chinese medicine skills worldwide. As a practitioner of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine Bisio heads a clinic in New York City, specializing in trauma and Chinese sports medicine. Bisio is the author of the popular book on healing, A Tooth From the Tiger's Mouth. He has also written and collaborated on a number of books on martial arts.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition xiii

Introduction xv

Chapter I Ba Gua Zhang and Military Strategy 1

The Art of War and Ba Gua Zhang 1

Orthodox and Unorthodox Strategies 3

Deception in Warfare 9

Terrain 14

Maneuver 16

Deployment 23

Flexibility and Adaptability 27

Blitz and Counter-Blitz 30

Guerrilla Warfare and Counterinsurgency 34

Innovation 45

Belisarius: A Study in Strategy 61

The Analogy of Water 67

Chapter II Strategy and the Eight Dispositions 69

Strategy and Grand Strategy 69

Strategic Planning 73

Strategic Plans Disrupted: Friction 85

The Chinese Way of Strategy and the Ba Gua 87

Interactions of the Eight Trigrams 91

The Eight Dispositions or Eight Intensions 98

Strategic Questions 109

Hexagrams of the Eight Palaces 112

Palace of Heaven 116

Palace of Earth 118

Palace of Thunder 120

Palace of Mountain 122

Palace of Wind 124

Palace of Lake 126

Palace of Water 128

Palace of Fire 130

Chapter III Strategy, the Yijing, and Ba Gua Zhang 133

The Implementation of Strategy 134

Ba Gua Zhang: Exponential Potential for Change 138

Liu Shi Si Shou 145

Ba Gua Straight Line Eight Diagram Sixty-Four Palms 150

Chapter IV Patterns of Change: The Order of the Hexagrams 161

Chapter V Applying Principles of Strategy and Change in Daily Life 173

Friction Revisited 173

Strategic Perspective and Orientation 176

The Yijing and Personal Life Strategies 177

Qualities of the Superior Person: Cultivating the Strategic Mind-Intention 180

Perseverance and Patience 181

Modesty 182

Tolerance 182

Leading and Following 184

Education: Learning from Others 185

Stillness, Stopping, and Waiting: Adaptation and Movement 186

Bold Decision and Forward Movement 187

Adaptation to Change 189

Cohesion: Bringing People and ideas Together 189

Increase and Decrease 190

The Message of the Yijing 191

Harmony and Balance 192

Wisdom 193

Self-Cultivation 193

Specific Applications of Strategy to Life 193

1 Application of Strategic Principles to Business and Work 194

Visions, Plans, Directions, and Goals 195

Operating Systems and Unified Practices 197

Decisions and Actions 198

Cultivating a Balanced Outlook 200

Respect and Appreciation 201

Communication and Meetings 203

Information and Metrics 204

2 Application of Strategic Principles to Relationships 205

Qualities for Cultivating Effective Relationships 206

Forming Relationships: Mutual Influence (Hexagram 31) 207

Intuition and Reason: Overcoming Differences 209

Sustaining Relationships: Constancy-Perseverance (Hexagram 32) 210

How Relationships Move Apart and Renew Themselves 211

Dispositions for Transformation 213

3 Application of Strategic Principles to Self-Fulfillment and One's Life Path 214

Desires and Goals 214

Excitement and Enthusiasm 216

Nourishing Life 217

Completion and Renewal: Hexagrams 63 and 64 218

Sincerity and Inner Truth: Hexagram 61 220

Ba Gua Zhang: Training a Disposition for Change and Transformation 221

Let Life Decide 223

Appendix I Conflict, the Army, and Peace 225

Three Hexagrams 225

Conflict/Contention (Song) 226

The Army (Shi) 229

Peace (Tai) 235

Appendix II Zhuge Liang on Strategy and Crisis Management 239

Zhuge Liang, the Master Strategist 239

Leadership and Opportunity 246

Appendix III The Thirty-Six Stratagems 253

1 Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Ocean 254

2 Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao 255

3 Kill with a Borrowed Knife 256

4 Wait Leisurely for an Exhausted Enemy. 257

5 Loot a Burning House 259

6 Make Noise in the East and Attack the West 259

7 Create Something from Nothing 261

8 Advance Secretly by Way of Chencang 262

9 Watch a Fire from Across the River 263

10 Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile 263

11 Sacrifice the Plum Tree to Preserve the Peach Tree 265

12 Lead Away a Goat in Passing 266

13 Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake 267

14 Find Reincarnation in Another's Corpse 268

15 Lure the Tiger Out of the Mountain 270

16 Leave at Large the Better to Capture 271

17 Cast Out a Brick to Attract Jade 272

18 To Catch Bandits, First Capture Their Leader 272

19 Remove the Firewood from Under the Cauldron 273

20 Muddle the Water to Seize the Fish 274

21 The Golden Cicada Sloughs off Its Skin 275

22 Shut the Door to Catch the Thief 276

23 Befriend Distant States While Attacking Nearby States 277

24 Attack Hu by a Borrowed Path 278

25 Replace the Beams with Rotten Timbers 279

26 Point at the Mulberry Tree but Curse the Locust Tree 280

27 Feign Madness but Keep Your Balance 281

28 Lure Your Enemy onto the Roof and Remove the Ladder 283

29 Deck the Tree with False Blossoms 284

30 Reverse Positions of the Host and Guest 285

31 The Beautiful Woman Stratagem 286

32 The Empty City Strategy 287

33 Turn the Enemy's Agents against Him 288

34 The Self-Injury Strategy 291

35 Linked Stratagems 291

36 If All Else Fails, Retreat 292

Notes 295

Bibliography 315

Index 325

About the Author 337

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