The main difficulty to assess the views of Guigu-zi is, most probably, in his general unwillingness to give definition to the political regime or separate species of strategy. According to the sage, a ruler governs not mostly by laws or administration, but rather by his spiritual vision, his sensitive foresight. He is like a spider that weaves a network of stratagems, patiently waiting for his prey until it falls itself in the spider's net. The sovereign power, undoubtedly, remains to be a property of one single person, the Son of Heaven, but it appears to be a hidden focus of a political situation and does not provided by rights, not even by the military force. The power cannot be determined and, therefore, introduced into some frameworks or brought out of them. The power, in its primary sense of force of the situation itself, is the pure presence in the energy space, eliminating all kind of violence. It's simply because it has everything within itself, by definition.

Stratagemical thinking was not only distinctive feature of military leaders and kings. Political figures and imperial court mentors were skilled in the management of civil society, as well as in diplomacy. Generally accepted opinion was that to win the political struggle the main thing they needed was well prepared stratagem equipment. Diplomatic stratagems were designed for a long-term state strategy and consistent with national interests. In diplomacy, the concept of stratagemical thinking was considered as a set of diplomatic and military measures aimed to implement a long-term strategic plan with solution of fundamental problems of foreign policy. Designed for stratagemical diplomacy’s implementation, a set of stratagems relied on norms and principles of international law and, at the same time, derived its strength in military theory, which carried a total character and asserted that ‘the end justifies the means.’

Structurally, stratagemical thinking embraces all the six spaces of a hexagram’s configuration and their changes accordingly. Therefore, people could never fully comprehend it. As an old saying goes, "What is truly great has no borders; what is changeable has no set time." This is what graph "ji" (stratagem) in the booklet's title speaks about. Written in archaic script (gu-wen) its second part, the number ten, refers to something at once extremely big (10, or 十 in Chinese) and extremely small (01, or 一), expressing the idea of extremes. Therefore, extremely large part of it is so large that there is nothing larger than that, while extremely small part is so small that there is nothing smaller, either. In effect, being available for all counterparties, the stratagems are predictable and manipulated. Since goodness is always rewarded by material or physical goods, a wise man takes the stratagems as his main subject for study. The six stratagems per each warfare category refer to whether or not there is a match between each of the categories' formulation and their oppositions, propelling the proper understanding of them both. The terms “times,” spaces,” “numbers” and “images” may well have directed the reader to consider the matrix of associations (temporal, spatial, numerological and literary) against a background of complex interactions between the categories and their stratagems consulted in each particular case. Therefore, a strategist could call on a lot of interconnected entities, each with its own symbolic value. Such multivalency of meanings can become apparent in the strategist’s case only if the images and associations are abundant enough to be accessible due to a well-wrought scheme.

On the other hand, the stratagems were called to carry out different tactical moves. It is widely known, for example, that Stratagem 3 (“Borrow the enemy's blade to kill him") was used to take away the enemy’s provisions or eliminate any hot-shot figure in his camp. As an instance, “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms " pictures a minister of ritual ceremonies by the name of Wang Yun who conceived a stratagem how to get rid of the cruel and wanton warlord Dong Zhuo who sought to seize the throne. To implement his plot, Wang Yun agreed with a beautiful singer and dancer by the name of Diao Chan that she should seduce Dong Zhuo and his adopted son Lü Bu, a brave but slow-witted warrior. Wang Yun promised to bestow Diao Chan on Lü Bu, but sent her to his father instead. Of course, upon hearing this, Lü Bu became furious and accused Wang Yun in guile, but the latter innocently replied that Dong Zhuo, his father, asked to look at the beauty in order to hand her over to his good son. Saying so, he took the girl to his place. Having become Dong Zhuo’s concubine, Diao Chan strived to push her master with his adopted son. In the end she succeeded, and Wang Yun set a trap, luring Dong Zhuo to the palace where he was killed by Lü Bu.

This episode is similar to many others in the oversaturated with the similar issues history of China, but it very pictorially reveals all necessary conditions for the stratagem generation and successful implementation, including (1) ability to calculate right moves and anticipate their effects; (2) good knowledge of psychological characteristics of the opponent (Dong Zhuo was seized with lust for power, while Lü Bu was brave but low-witted and could get excited about the young beauty); and finally (3) the strategist’s persistence in his plot accomplishment.

Therefore, a stratagem may be likened to an algorithm as it manages a right sequence of appropriate paces.

We so often use the expression "politics is the art of possibilities" that it starts to sound quite trivial to us. Its interpretation boils down to the fact that any policy is limited in reality and a strategist, being a realist, should take into account all specifics of the situation; therefore, he is unable to do more than what is allowed to him by circumstances. In fact, the so-called 'art of possibilities' actually is ability to foresee consequences of political actions and their fruits. In this regard, stratagemical thinking is used to reveal ability to calculate a number of advanced movements in the political game, and sometimes not only to calculate but, being based on a number of characteristics and traits of a situation, as well as the opponent's specifics, also program them for changes you wish to be occurred at the end of the day. This is what is called ‘political foresight,’ which can be employed actively and on the constant basis.

Official politics is always a kind of smokescreen, as it is formed by virtue of ritual, which is used to cover hidden deeply within interests. A skilful politician is he who knows how to line up a full range of his internal and external activities. He can be likened to a mirror which, being impartial, reflects all things around.

Accordingly, the main virtue of a sovereign ruler in China considered as an ability to lead others and get a situation down by means of his power of vitality and fullness of life properties. According to the concept developed by the ancients, a true man of virtue is he who able to encourage others to follow him, doing nothing for his private ends to be served, but fully immersed in the flow of the universal communicativeness with Heaven. Of course, the apparent modesty and decency is the best indication of strong power and ability to command oneself. As a saying goes, "A true man (zheng ren) does not show himself; he who shows himself off is not a true man." By definition, wisdom of Chinese stratagems, in their ultimate truth, is infinitely effective means of pacific settlement of conflicts. Therefore, generally speaking, stratagemical thinking may be considered as an ability to combine a strategy with possibility to drive the opponent in a plight. However, it is easier said than done. On the face of it the whole scheme seems to be quite simple: first you get your strategy and equip it with some turnouts (stratagems) to carry out. But even in such super-strategic game like chess, until the end of 19th century the European players had a rough time in building up strategic plans based on assessment of a situation. As E. Lasker wrote, "A matter of laying a right plan is as difficult as to make a right substantiation of it. It took a long time, at least a thousand years, before the chess world has realised the value of planning."

In China, the art of laying schemes has come into practice several centuries before Common Era to be enriched from generation to generation. Knowledge of ancient stratagems and ability to develop crafty plans become an old tradition, not only in the field of political issues, diplomacy and warfare, but also in everyday life of ordinary people who endeavour to compare their considered in fine details plans with heritage of the famous strategists of old. Thus, in the medieval novel "The Plum in a Golden Vase” (Jin Ping Mei), the old matchmaker by the name of Wang, arranging a tryst, boasts that she has a ten-point plan, which is by no means inferior to that of Sun-zi himself.

In old China a skill to compose stratagems witnessed of advanced personal abilities; having a good plan one could be confident in successful accomplishment of any trade. Therefore, at all levels the Chinese were used to respect those who were able to generate and implement strategic designs. Starting from major statecraft and political problems to the Chinese roundup chess named "wei-qi," in all spheres of life the Chinese have competed in skill of stratagem generation and accomplishment. There is even a special term 'zhi-dou' (智鬥) which denotes such capability to competitiveness.

Stratagemical thinking becomes a feature of Chinese national character, the feature of national psyche. However, it does not mean that the Chinamen represent a nation of artful schemers, liars and deceivers. It's not true at all. They are the people who, first of all, know how to think strategically and complete a long-term plan, both on the statecraft and personal level, and who are able to calculate a situation a number moves forward, utilizing stratagemical tricks and turnouts on the way to successful achievement.

One of the merits of a true man, according to the Confucian doctrine, is ability to realization 'ming' (明), also known as ‘enlightenment,’ ‘intelligence’ and ‘a skill to generate stratagems.’ Those who could skilfully lay a scheme and mastered the art of stratagems were treated as sages. About such men people said that “they could generate perfect (ten-point) plan and did it even faster than one moved one's eyebrow” (meitou yizhou, jishang xintou). And quickness of understanding is crucial here. Another old expression says: “Once he knits his brows and a stratagem comes to his mind.”

As it has already been mentioned earlier, the art of strategy in ancient China was the compulsory subject of numerous court advisors, philosophers and warlords who were engaged in carrying out the state affairs. Such experts in the art of strategy and statecraft offered their secret plans to rulers, princes and dukes of many kingdoms who were able to pay for the intelligent service. And the most striking example of such trade is Confucius himself who founded his first private School of Statecraft where he trained statesmen and political figures for all solvent states and governments. This is one of the reasons why the great Master displayed so much interest in study of the "Zhou Yi" (The Book of Circular Changes) in the way of natural phenomena and mechanism of social development reflected through the divinatory system arranged within the framework of ritual heritage of the great Zhou dynasty.