Table of Contents

Tale 1
Sun Pin
Tale 2
Wu Tzu-Hsu
Tale 3
King Kou-chien of the Yueh State
Tale 4
Lord Shang
Tale 5
Mencius and Hsun Ching
Tale 6
Lord Mengchang
Tale 7
Tien Tan
Tale 8
Fan Sui and Tsai Tse
Tale 9
Lord Hsinling
Tale 10
Lord Pingyuan and Yu Ching
Tale 11
Lien Po and Lin Hsiang-ju
Tale 12
Lu Pu-wei
Tale 13
The First Emperor of Chin
Tale 14
Chen Sheh
Tale 15
Hsiang Yu
Tale 16
Chang Liang, Marquis of Liu
Tale 17
Prime Minister Chen Ping
Tale 18
Han Hsin, Marquis of Huaiyin
Tale 19
Chi Pu and Luan Pu
Tale 20
Liu Pi, Prince of Wu
Tale 21
The Princes of Huainan and Hengshan
Tale 22
Chang Shih-chih and Feng Tang
Tale 23
Chi An and Cheng Tang-shih
TTale 24
The Marquises of Weichi and Wu-an
Tale 25
Li Kuang
Tale 26
The Assassins
Tale 27
The Jesters
Tale 28
The Money Makers
Tale 29
The Gallant Citizens
Tale 30
The Harsh Officials

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Sun Wu, a native of Chi, gained an audience with King Holu of Wu on the strength of his military theory. More than a hundred years after Sun Wu’s death, a descendant of his named Sun Pin was born. Sun Pin studied the art of war with Pang Chuan. Knowing that he was no match for Sun Pin, Pang Chuan had Sun Pin’s feet cut off and his face tattooed on a criminal charge in the hope that he would no longer appear in public. When an envoy from Chi came to the capital of Wei, Sun Pin went privately to see him although he was a mutilated convict. The envoy was so impressed that he smuggled him out in his carriage to Chi. And there General Tien Chi treated him well and became his patron. Now Tien Chi often bet heavily on races between his chariots and those of the young lords of Chi. Their teams, divided into three classes, were well-matched. Seeing this, Sun Pin advised, “Stake heavily! I shall see that you win.”