Chapter 3 · Attacking Stratagems
打草驚蛇
Dǎ cǎo jīng shé
Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake
打草驚蛇
beat · grass · startle · snake
Make a deliberate disturbance to flush a hidden threat into showing itself before it's ready.
今 Today
Suspecting a leak, you hand each exec a slightly different "confidential" number. When one version surfaces in a competitor's deck, the grass has told you exactly which snake to watch.
反 When it backfires
Beat the grass too early and you teach the snake it's hunted — it goes deeper, gets careful, and next time you won't see it coming at all.