Strategy and competition
Lin Xiangru
Putting the wrong on their side
Lin Xiangru (Warring States · Zhao · dates unknown) — Putting the wrong on their side.
What actually happened?
The King of Qin invited the King of Zhao to meet at Mianchi. Well into the drinking he asked the King of Zhao to play the zither, and Qin's scribe wrote it down: on this day the King of Qin drank with the King of Zhao and ordered him to play. Lin Xiangru stepped forward and asked the King of Qin to beat time on an earthen pot. He refused. Within five paces, Lin said, I can spatter Your Majesty with the blood of my neck. The guards reached for their swords; he glared and they fell back. The king struck the pot once, and Lin had Zhao's scribe write that down too.
Let the wrong land on their side
Offered cities for the jade, he did two sums: refuse, and Zhao is in the wrong; hand it over and get nothing, and Qin is. He chose to agree and push the risk of broken faith onto a stronger state that needed a pretext to march.
Offered terms you don't believe, accept them with the delivery steps written down, and see whether they walk them.
Keep something you can take back
His promise was that the jade would stay in Qin only if the cities came. When the king showed no sign of paying, Lin took the jade back on the pretext of pointing out a flaw, asked for five days of fasting, and sent it home by a back road.
Send a sample and tie the final payment to acceptance, so they take the first step.
If they write it down, so do you
At Mianchi Qin's scribe recorded that the King of Zhao played for the King of Qin. Lin forced the reverse and had Zhao's scribe record it. When someone uses the record to score a point, answer on the same page with an equal entry.
If the minutes note your concession, make sure the same minutes note what they gave in return.
With your own side, put the steel away
When Lian Po swore to disgrace him, he stayed home on court days and turned his carriage aside in the street. Qin held off, he said, only because both of them were there; two tigers fighting would leave one dead.
In a clash with a colleague you work shoulder to shoulder with, ask who gains most if you two fall out in public.
How do I use it today?
If you are facing someone stronger who will not play fair, don't start by arguing with them, and don't refuse outright. Follow each path to its end and see where the wrong lands. Take the one that leaves it with them, but don't give anything away for free: make their delivery the condition for yours, and keep something you can take back. If the person picking the fight is on your own side, don't rush to prove you are not afraid. Ask what the two of you are holding together, and whether it survives the fight. Lin Xiangru threatened to smash the jade against a pillar in Qin's hall, then went out of his way to avoid Lian Po at home. The nerve and the restraint came from the same calculation.
Deep read
Read alongside
Further
Lines to keep
Within five paces, I can spatter Your Majesty with my blood.