The Guest Becomes the Host

Turn the Guest into the Host Seize the moment when the other side has an opening to insert oneself, grasp and hold its vital strategic points, and then proceed step by step to achieve control. The commentary further breaks this process into five steps: first, contend for the position of guest and establish a firm foothold; second, seize an exploitable gap; third, intervene within it; fourth, grasp the key mechanisms; fifth, complete the exchange of host and guest. The core lies not in seizing power all at once, but in first entering lawfully in the capacity of “guest,” and then gradually taking the key links into one’s own hands, so that a originally dependent position irreversibly becomes a dominant one. Allusion:In the late Eastern Han dynasty, Liu Zhang, governor of Yizhou, had a feud with Zhang Lu of Hanzhong. His subordinate Zhang Song proposed inviting Liu Bei of Jingzhou into Shu to assist in defense. Huang Quan, Wang Lei, and others forcefully remonstrated against it, but Liu Zhang would not listen and insisted on inviting Liu Bei into Yizhou. After entering......