失街亭，空城计 (The Loss of Jieting and the Empty City Strategem)
街亭(Jieting) a small junction in the tactically important stronghold of Qishan
When Sima Yi fought with Zhuge Liang, Kongming (诸葛亮,字孔明）to defend the Northern Wei, they clashed at Jieting. Not directly though.
They are the best military tacticians of their time. If they are now alive, they should be football managers. Sima Yi would be the equivalent of Jose Mourinho and Kongming would be Rafael Benitez. They are not enemies but have to fight each other because they serve different masters.
When they were fighting at Qishan, Kongming deployed a useless and arrogant general Ma Su at Jieting. Jieting was vey important and if lost, Kongming would have to retreat back to his own kingdom and his camaign would fail. Kongming deployed Ma Su because of Ma Su insisting that he would be good at guarding the place.
Due to Ma Su's arrogance and uselessness he lost Jieting to Sima Yi and Sima Yi pursued Kongming's forces with 150000 men.
Having deployed all his military generals at various places, Kongming at Xicheng (西城) had only a few civil officers left and 2500 soldiers to fend off Sima Yi and his 150000 men.He couldn't have run because sima yi can catch up very easily. Adversity and doom were obviously looming for Kongming.
But he knew that Sima Yi was always suspicious of people. He knew Sima Yi had the strong impression that he is never one to tempt fate or take risks. So kongming opened up ALL the city gates, asked hs men to escort civilians to retreat he himself went up to the city wall,sitting down and strummed the zither, an ancient musical intrument.
When Sima Yi arrived, he didn't understand why Kongming was up to. His generals told him he could rush into the city and capture Kongming since it seems that Kongming is putting up no resistance and has opened all the city gates. But sima yi was suspicious. He didn't think that it was going to be so easy. He thought that kongming was up to something and decided to retreat.
Sima Yi and his 150000 men retreated.
Kongming single handedly fended off 150001 soldiers with just his zither and the empty city.
Later on, people termed this strategy as 空城计 (empty city strategem) and it becomes so famous among the literary educated.
Kongming is so brilliant. However, some people argued that this empty city strategem never ever took place and was elusive (虚无飘缈). It was written in by the author of romance of the three kingdoms.
But this is not just any fiction. It has its point. Even if it is fake it teaches us something important, and that is to remain very calm and fearless during adversity.
The loss of Jieting represents trouble, and kongming fending sima yi off against all odds symbolises the resolve and resource to fight against troubles and problems.
I hope all who read this posting get the point, especially my students. When met with adversity, stay calm and dun be afraid. Just think calmly and logically to come up with a solution to a problem. Only then will you become stronger.
When Sima Yi fought with Zhuge Liang, Kongming (诸葛亮,字孔明）to defend the Northern Wei, they clashed at Jieting. Not directly though.
They are the best military tacticians of their time. If they are now alive, they should be football managers. Sima Yi would be the equivalent of Jose Mourinho and Kongming would be Rafael Benitez. They are not enemies but have to fight each other because they serve different masters.
When they were fighting at Qishan, Kongming deployed a useless and arrogant general Ma Su at Jieting. Jieting was vey important and if lost, Kongming would have to retreat back to his own kingdom and his camaign would fail. Kongming deployed Ma Su because of Ma Su insisting that he would be good at guarding the place.
Due to Ma Su's arrogance and uselessness he lost Jieting to Sima Yi and Sima Yi pursued Kongming's forces with 150000 men.
Having deployed all his military generals at various places, Kongming at Xicheng (西城) had only a few civil officers left and 2500 soldiers to fend off Sima Yi and his 150000 men.He couldn't have run because sima yi can catch up very easily. Adversity and doom were obviously looming for Kongming.
But he knew that Sima Yi was always suspicious of people. He knew Sima Yi had the strong impression that he is never one to tempt fate or take risks. So kongming opened up ALL the city gates, asked hs men to escort civilians to retreat he himself went up to the city wall,sitting down and strummed the zither, an ancient musical intrument.
When Sima Yi arrived, he didn't understand why Kongming was up to. His generals told him he could rush into the city and capture Kongming since it seems that Kongming is putting up no resistance and has opened all the city gates. But sima yi was suspicious. He didn't think that it was going to be so easy. He thought that kongming was up to something and decided to retreat.
Sima Yi and his 150000 men retreated.
Kongming single handedly fended off 150001 soldiers with just his zither and the empty city.
Later on, people termed this strategy as 空城计 (empty city strategem) and it becomes so famous among the literary educated.
Kongming is so brilliant. However, some people argued that this empty city strategem never ever took place and was elusive (虚无飘缈). It was written in by the author of romance of the three kingdoms.
But this is not just any fiction. It has its point. Even if it is fake it teaches us something important, and that is to remain very calm and fearless during adversity.
The loss of Jieting represents trouble, and kongming fending sima yi off against all odds symbolises the resolve and resource to fight against troubles and problems.
I hope all who read this posting get the point, especially my students. When met with adversity, stay calm and dun be afraid. Just think calmly and logically to come up with a solution to a problem. Only then will you become stronger.
posted by Kian Tong at 2:29 PM
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