Implementing Deceiving Heaven to Cross the Sea - 36 Strategies

From World's Chinese Wiki

Implementing Deceiving Heaven to Cross the Sea - 36 Strategies

"Deceiving Heaven to Cross the Sea" is implemented by using an illusion to prevent the receiving party from being aware that you are in the process of achieving your goals. This is slightly different from Feign an Attack in the East and Attack in the West where the main aim is to create a diversion, and not an illusion.

In the illustration, the goal was to make the Emperor board a ship to cross the sea, and the illusion which are beautiful music, grand feast and fine wine to numb the senses of the Emperor, so much so he is not aware that he is boarding a ship.

What are the factors that would lead to the successful implementation of "Deceiving Heaven to Cross the Sea"?

1. Nature of Illusion
2. Timing
3. Know the Receiving Party

Nature of Illusion

The nature of the illusion is important. As the second sentence of the explanation says, "Things we see often, we will not be suspicious about." The illusion must be something that is commonly seen thus does not raise one’s suspicion easily.

The next sentence of the explanation says, "Secrets should be kept in the obvious, and not something that is incompatible with the obvious." One good example to illustrate is would you hide a banana on a durian tree or a banana tree?

In the illustration, the big tent is the main backdrop of the illusion. Inside the tent, there is beautiful music to drown the sound made by the waves and there are fine food and wine to numb the senses of the Emperor from noticing that he is on a boat. These are very common things to the Emperor and moreover these are indulgences that can easily grab the attention of the Emperor. And with a tent, the tent can serve to cover up the big mast of the ship that the Emperor is in, making the Emperor thing that the mast is actually the main support beam of the ship.

So the illusion must be something that is commonly seen. It must be something that can grab one’s attention, preferably, throughout the whole process of achieving goals. And the illusion must be done up properly with no details that can raise one’s suspicion.

Timing

Another factor is the timing of implementation. The illusion must be implemented before the receiving party becomes aware of your actual goals or else all effort to numb the senses of the receiving party would be lost. This means that you should implement such illusion as soon as possible, especially when your illusion depends on certain factors that have a time element in it, for example high and low tide, to successfully carry out the illusion.

Know the Receiving Party

Last but not least, aim to understand the habits, character and preferences of the receiving party so that one can create an illusion that has a higher success rate. If the Emperor does not like fine wine or dining, he would not have let his guard down and would have heard the sound of the wave long before he boarded the ship.

Back to "Deceiving Heaven to Cross the Sea"