1 — When you are still weak, the world offers countless cracks and crevices where you can hide and maneuver. But once you grow powerful, you can no longer afford to bide your time in obscurity. Every championship race throughout history has been accompanied by fierce struggle and strategic competition — it is woven into the very DNA of humanity.
2 — Struggle and competition don’t always have to end in someone’s total destruction, but they do require weakening the loser to the point where they cannot rise again for a century. That is why certain lines cannot be crossed — they must be held with gritted teeth, sustained by sheer inner strength.
3 — For a top-tier power, wealth matters — but it is not the highest priority. Cohesion, military strength, global voice, and control over overseas territory — all of these outrank wealth.
4 — Lessons from history and the experience of those before us have made it clear: to compete without breaking, to lie low and press forward steadily — catching up and then surpassing rivals across every domain, one field at a time — that is the optimal path.
5 — Don’t oversimplify the world stage. Every move on the board is backed by astronomical volumes of calculation and strategic simulation. Yet at its core, it is strikingly simple: only a handful of real players hold genuine influence. Everyone else is a supporting cast — they back whoever is winning.
6 — For the individual, one principle is enough: the arc of the times, your geographic environment, long-range thinking, and personal effort.
7 — Lift your gaze to the highest level and you will understand: these times are inevitably hard, because we will never again enjoy the goodwill once extended to us by stronger powers forty or fifty years ago. We are now that strong power. Every meal from here on must be earned through real, proven capability — carving out new space through genuine effort.
8 — Human nature is a remarkable thing — collective voices can melt gold, and three people claiming they saw a tiger will make you believe it. At the peak, it’s easy to become euphoric and lose your head. In the valley, it’s easy to sink into despair and give up entirely. There is always something going wrong, and there is always something going right. Calm down, and you will always find a way through.
9 — When your vital energy has been depleted, rest and recover properly — do not thrash around making things worse. Good books nourish the mind. Good food builds the foundation. Good sleep restores the spirit.
10 — To understand the future, look at the past. Study history — all of history is, at its core, the same story endlessly repeated. That is why the Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance) truly is a masterwork worth reading.
So: you will be fine. You will make it through. ✊