Source: An article by Gui Guzi, a strategist in the Spring and Autumn Period, Gui Guzi Zi Yihe.
Excerpt from the original text: the way of heaven and earth, who marries who. Married people, change yin and yang, open and close at four seasons, change everything. Vertical and horizontal cooperation, counterattack, repetition and counterattack are bound to be carried out.
Opening and closing is the law of development and change of all kinds of things in the world. Opening and closing are to change all aspects of internal opposition of things, and make everything develop and change through the beginning and end of the four seasons. Whether it is vertical or horizontal, or leaving, returning, or resisting, it must be realized by opening or closing.
Extended data
Creative background:
Guiguzi is well aware of the important role of language in human society, as the ancient cautionary saying goes, "A word prospers the country, but a word destroys the country." We should take corresponding countermeasures according to everyone's characteristics.
Control your mouth by opening and closing, and let the sound come and go regularly, then you have mastered the speaking skills and the grand strategy of the world! Through the response and contest in lobbying, we can finally achieve "vertical and horizontal" and be invincible in the world! These people who conquer the world by lobbying and writing are called "strategists".
However, strategists advocate not using troops easily, not openly, or using vertical and horizontal coordination to achieve military goals before using troops, which is similar to the principle of "defeating the enemy without fighting" and "attacking his army, cutting his enemy, cutting his army again, and attacking the city from the bottom up"
Therefore, Guiguzi advocates that those who run the army must be both wise and brave. "The material is not good, and the soldiers are not available." Those who advocate yin are yin and those who advocate yang are yang, that is to say, in the dark, unconsciously, the opponent has been defeated by strength. It seems to refer to the application of a military deterrent force, such as the Six White Horses Alliance in Su Qin, which has the effect of defeating the enemy without fighting.