Sun Zi Bing Fa Yu San Shi Liu Ji (; "Sun Tzu's The Art of War and the Thirty-Six Stratagems"), is a 2000 Chinese television historical series romanticising the life of the military strategist Sun Bin, who lived in the fourth century BC during the Warring States period of ancient China.
Synopsis During the Warring States period, the reclusive philosopher Guiguzi takes Sun Bin and Pang Juan as his students and trains them in military strategy. He also passes the long-lost military treatise The Art of War to Sun Bin only.
Both Sun Bin and Pang Juan later serve under the king of Wei. When Pang Juan is caught in a stalemate while leading Wei forces into battle against invaders from Chu, Sun Bin uses a stratagem he learnt from The Art of War to defeat the enemy. Pang Juan, secretly jealous of Sun Bin, frames Sun Bin for treason and causes him to be face-tattooed and crippled.
Pang Juan's adviser Gongsun Yue, who has a crush on Zhongli Qiu, secretly tells Sun Bin that Pang Juan is the mastermind behind his downfall. Sun Bin pretends to be insane and destroys the records of everything he has learnt from Guiguzi. Zhongli Qiu, hoping that Sun Bin is feigning insanity, confesses her feelings to him but he continues to put up the pretence and manages to fool Pang Juan.
Zhongli Qiu's sister Zhongli Chun hears of Sun Bin's plight so she travels to Sun Bin's native state of Qi and begs the Qi general Tian Ji to help her save Sun Bin. Tian Ji sends his followers to save Sun Bin and smuggle him out of Wei to Qi, where Sun Bin attracts King Wei of Qi's attention and becomes a military leader alongside Tian Ji, leading Qi forces into battle against their enemies.
Cast
List of episodes Each episode is named after one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems.
# Rough translation of title (in English) Original title (in Chinese) 1 Remove the ladder when the enemy has ascended to the roof 2 Hide a knife behind a smile 3 Feign madness but keep your balance 4 Slough off the cicada's golden shell 5 Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree 6 Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao 7 Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief 8 Leisurely await for the laboured 9 Create something from nothing 10 Kill with a borrowed knife 11 Loot a burning house 12 Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean 13 Replace the beams with rotten timbers 14 Obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo 15 Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west 16 The empty fort strategy 17 Let the enemy's own spy sow discord in the enemy camp 18 Deck the tree with false blossoms 19 Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem 20 Disturb the water and catch a fish 21 Sneak through the passage of Chencang 22 The beauty trap 23 Make the host and the guest exchange roles 24 Point at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust tree 25 Chain stratagems 26 Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbour 27 Stomp the grass to scare the snake 28 Entice the tiger to leave its mountain lair 29 In order to capture, one must let loose 30 Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul 31 Remove the firewood from under the pot 32 Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat 33 Shut the door to catch the thief 34 Inflict injury on oneself to win the enemy's trust 35 Watch the fires burning across the river 36 If all else fails, retreat
External links
Sun Zi Bing Fa Yu San Shi Liu Ji on Youku