Tian Ji -- The Horse Racing
That was about 2300 years ago. General Tian Ji was a high official in the country Qi. He liked to play horse racing with the king and others. Both of Tian and the king had three horses in different classes, namely, regular, plus, and super. The rule was to have three rounds in a match; each of the horses must be used in one round. The winner of a single round took two hundred silver dollars from the loser.
Being the most powerful man in the country, the king had such nice horses that in each class his horse was better than Tian’s. As a result, each time the king took six hundred silver dollars from Tian. Tian Ji was not happy about that, until he met Sun Bin, one of the most famous generals in Chinese history. Using a little trick due to Sun, Tian Ji brought home two hundred silver dollars and grace in the next match.
It was a rather simple trick. Using his regular class horse race against the super class from the king, they will certainly lose that round. But then his plus beat the king’s regular, and his super beat the king’s plus. Under the same condition, a proper strategy could lead you to success, while you are out of line with others, it could make the losses more tolerable.
The same strategy is also a magic trump card in the Olympic Games, for example in many items athletes fight for the gold medal after rounds in an elimination contest, if they do their best in preliminary contest, it is unlikely to reach another climax in the final. In some team events, the coach is an onshore beacon in the dark, whose strategy and direction determine the legitimacy of the team.
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