Stratagem No. 17 第十七计 Attacking stratagems (攻战计)
Toss out a brick to attract jade
Literal
Toss a brick, draw in jade.
Offer something shaped like what the other side already wants, and let that appetite pull them onto ground you have prepared.
Source line
类以诱之，击蒙也。
Traditional 類以誘之，擊蒙也。
Lure them with something of the same kind. This is striking the fool, from the hexagram Meng (Youthful Folly).
Icons working translation — draft, pending review
Striking the fool is the top line of the hexagram Meng (Youthful Folly). The manual reads it as a blow against an opponent who has been drawn into acting rashly. The lure should be of the same kind as the thing they want, not a vague hint. A similar bait confirms their mistake. A merely suspicious sign lets them hesitate.
三十六计 · Chinese Wikisource edition (public domain)
Meaning
Toss out a brick to attract jade means baiting an opponent with something small that resembles the prize they already desire, so that they come and bring the greater thing with them. The brick is real enough to be taken. The jade is their army, their attention, their best argument, pulled out of position by the taking. The commentary prefers this to a vague feint. Flags and drums only half convince. A bait of the same kind as the real object, weak troops where they expect troops, grain where they expect grain, foragers where they expect an easy capture, settles the illusion.
The polite life of the phrase is a different tool. In company, to toss a brick and draw jade means to offer a crude remark in the hope that someone abler will answer with a better one. That is modesty, or a request for help. The stratagem is not modest. You want them to move, and you want the movement to be a mistake. The hexagram’s fool is the opponent who cannot tell a sample from the thing itself, and who treats the first small success as proof that the next step is safe.
The story
Qu Xia baits the state of Jiao, 700 BC 楚伐绞
History
In 700 BC, the twelfth year of Duke Huan of Lu, Chu attacked the small state of Jiao and camped at its south gate. Qu Xia, the Mo’ao, told the command that Jiao was small and rash, and that rashness meant little planning. He asked that the men who went out to cut wood be left unguarded, as a lure. Chu agreed. Jiao captured thirty of them. The brick had been taken, and it had paid.
The next day the men of Jiao competed to get out of the city, chasing Chu’s labourers into the hills. Chu held the north gate and had troops waiting at the foot of the hills. The Zuo Zhuan says Jiao was badly defeated, and that Chu imposed a covenant under the city wall and went home. The foragers were the brick. The garrison that left its gate was the jade. A similar bait had done what drums could not have done, because the first day’s captives were real.
The same classic already notes that during this campaign Chu’s army divided to cross the Peng River, and that the neighbouring state of Luo sent a man to count the columns. The next year Qu Xia led an attack on Luo, was defeated, and hanged himself. The stratagem had worked against a small, rash enemy. It did not make its author infallible, and the Zuo Zhuan keeps the sequel in plain view. The commentary’s other illustration is Sun Bin reducing his campfires to draw Pang Juan at Maling. That is the same logic of a like bait, told in the Shiji under 342 BC, and it is a different campaign from Guiling.
The Jiao campaign is in the Zuo Zhuan, Duke Huan, 12th year (700 BC). The next year Qu Xia was defeated by Luo and died.
Sources
- Zuo Zhuan 左传, Duke Huan, 12th year
Myth check
In polite Chinese, tossing out a brick to attract jade is a modest way to invite a better poem or a better idea, later attached to a doubtful Tang anecdote about two poets. In the stratagem manual it is bait. The modesty is a social reuse of a hunter’s phrase.
Modern application
A small contract, a pilot, a leaked draft or a minor concession can be the brick, if it is shaped like the larger thing the other side wants and if you are ready for the rush that follows. The error is to throw a brick when you have no ground prepared for the jade: the competitor who chases your pilot into a market you do not control has just been handed a real foothold. Those thirty captives were a victory for the pursuers until the next morning.
In argument, the polite sense and the strategic sense are easy to confuse. Offering a rough idea so that a colleague will improve it is the social phrase. Offering a rough idea so that a rival will commit, in public, to a position you can then answer, is the stratagem. The difference is whether you want their answer to be good. Be sure which one you are doing before you speak.
Takeaways
- Bait them with something of the same kind as the prize they want.
- Let the first small success be real. That is what confirms the lure.
- Prepare the ground for their rush before you throw the bait.
How to counter it
A small, easy gain of exactly the sort you already want is the classic brick. Take it if you must, and do not let it pull your main strength out of position the next day.
Questions
What does toss out a brick to attract jade mean?
It means baiting an opponent with a small thing of the same kind as the prize they want, so that they come out and can be taken. In 700 BC Chu left its woodcutters unguarded outside Jiao. Jiao captured thirty, rushed out the next day to catch more, and was ambushed. In ordinary speech the same words are a polite request that someone else offer a better idea.
Is toss a brick to attract jade just a modest thing to say?
It is modest in conversation: my crude remark may draw out your better one. The Thirty-Six Stratagems use it differently. The brick is a lure, and the jade is the enemy’s force, pulled onto ground you have prepared. The classical line calls this striking the fool, from the hexagram Meng, Youthful Folly.