SOURCE: Ames, Roger T. “Shih (Strategic Advantage/Political Purchase).” In The “Art of Rulership”: A Study of Ancient Chinese Political Thought, pp. 65-107. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

In the following excerpt, Ames analyzes the concept of strategic advantage as described in The Art of War and traces how the concept changes in later works.

The next concept to be analyzed in this exploration of the political philosophy of The Art of Rulership [Book Nine of the Huai Nan Tzu] is shih, “strategic advantage.” This concept has long been associated with the rise of the Legalist school as one of its three cardinal precepts: fa (“penal law”), shih (“strategic advantage/political purchase”), and shu (“art/techniques of rulership”). In spite of its central importance, the historical development of shih prior to its adoption by the early Legalist thinkers has not, to my knowledge, been examined in...