CMSI Translations #29: Can “Armchair Strategizing” Secure Victory from a Thousand Miles Away?

China Maritime Studies Institute – In 440 BC, Mozi and Lu Ban—using a belt to represent a city wall and wooden tablets as weaponry—launched a “paper confrontation” in front of the palace of the King of Chu that changed the trajectory of warfare. This simulation of nine victorious battles not only neutralized the power of the State of Chu’s siege ladders in an abstract strategic contest, but also revealed the ultimate value of wargaming: utilizing simulated combat to anticipate the realities of the battlefield and employing logical deduction to avert the calamities of war.