Sun Bin pretended to be crazy and stupid to protect himself

"Historical Records: The Biography of Sun Tzu Wu Qilie" records: Sun Bin tasted and Pang Juan learned the art of war. Pang Juan was in charge of Wei, and he had to be the general of King Hui, and he thought that he could not be as good as Sun Bin, so he summoned Sun Bin as a messenger. In the end, Pang Juan was afraid that he would be virtuous, and if he was sick, he would cut off his feet by law and kill him, wanting to hide it. The envoy of Qi is like Liang, and Sun Bin sees it as a prisoner and says that it is an envoy of Qi. Qi made it surprising, and stole it with it. Qi will treat Tian Ji with kindness and hospitality.

In his early years, Sun Bin and Pang Juan learned the art of war from Guiguzi. He studied diligently, studied hard, and was gifted and intelligent, and soon acquired a wealth of military knowledge, and before he could get out of the house, he showed superhuman military talent, so that it aroused the jealousy of Pang Juan, who studied with him.

Later, Pang Juan was invited by the King of Wei to serve as the general of Wei, although the spring breeze was proud, but when he thought of Sun Bin who was only on his own, he was deeply disturbed. Therefore, Pang Juan secretly sent someone to invite Sun Bin to Wei and pretended to recommend it to King Wei Hui, but actually tried to harm him. Sun Bin arrived in Wei and became a nameless and powerless guest. At this time, Pang Juan stepped up his conspiracy to frame Sun Bin. He first sent someone to pretend to be entrusted by Sun Bin's cousin to persuade Sun Bin to return to Qi. After deceiving Sun Bin's handwritten reply, he altered it, and then falsely accused Sun Bin of fornicating with Qi to the King of Wei. The king of Wei was furious and ordered Sun Bin to be executed.

Pang Juan originally wanted to kill Sun Bin, but remembered that "Sun Tzu's Art of War" had not yet been deceived, so he pretended to be merciful. He said to Sun Bin: "The king originally sentenced you to death, but it was I who repeatedly pleaded that changed it to a face of scarf. The sincere and kind-hearted Sun Bin believed it to be true, and in the case of a physical disability, he also obediently wrote "The Art of War" for Pang Juanmo. Pang Juan's house slave was very depressed when he saw this situation: Wouldn't it be a pity for such a famous military strategist to be killed like this? So he told Sun Bin the truth.

Sun Bin woke up like a dream and saw Pang Juan's true face, which was really regretful. Now that he is controlled by Pang Juan, his knees are gone, and his legs are unable to walk, so he is not miserable. But Sun Bin is a person with extraordinary will, and he did not get depressed because of this, he buried his hatred deep in his heart. On the one hand, he skillfully maneuvered with Pang Juan, and on the other hand, he was trying to find an opportunity to get rid of Pang Juan's surveillance as soon as possible, thinking that one day he would gallop across the country and avenge his blood shame. He began to pretend to be crazy and stupid, burning the few military books he had just written one by one, crying for a while, laughing for a while, and making all sorts of stupid appearances for a while: either spitting or screaming incessantly. The visitor was terrified and hurriedly informed Pang Juan of the matter. Pang Juan personally inspected it, and saw Sun Bin salivating all over his face, sometimes laughing on the ground, and sometimes crying. Pang Juan was cunning by nature, afraid that he would be crazy, so he ordered him to be dragged into the pigsty left and right, and Sun Bin showed his face and lay down in the dung. Pang Juan was still skeptical, but the supervision was much more lax than before. Sun Bin talked wildly all day long, or cried or laughed, mingled in the market during the day, and still returned to the pigsty at night. A few days later, Pang Juan believed that Sun Bin was really crazy.

At this time, Yu Huali sued King Qi Wei of Sun Bin's grievances. King Qi Wei sent Chun Yu to Wei to invite Sun Bin, and with the cooperation of the fowl slippery, he secretly let Sun Bin disguise and carry him to the car to bring him back to Qi.

Sun Bin returned to Qi State, King Qi Wei respected him as a guest, and even if he wanted to worship Sun Bin as a military advisor, Sun Bin pushed down this position, saying that I would help when I used me.

Later, Pang Juan led his troops to defeat Song, Lu, Wei, Zhao and other countries, and the king of Qi sent Tian Ji as a general and Sun Bin as a military advisor, so that Pang Juan lost again and again. In the end, Sun Bin used the "reduction method" to lure Pang Juan to chase after him, and set up an ambush in the dark. The ruthless Pang Juan was shot to death by random arrows on Maling Road.

Pretending to be stupid is also an art and a realm. To be precise, pretending to be stupid is the work of smart people. Pretending to be stupid and used for political strategy is a trick of Tao Hui. When it is not good for him, he pretends to be crazy and stupid on the surface, giving people the impression of doing nothing, but in fact he hides his talents and conceals his inner political ambitions, so as not to arouse the vigilance of his political opponents, so as to wait for the opportunity to realize his ambitions.