Zhang

Today was the day when my thesis director agreed to sign on to supervise my thesis. Now I am finally on the track of graduation. My research advisor, Don Ostrowski, was great to help me with my initial process, and passed my initial proposal and narrowed down my potential thesis directors. My thesis director, Richard Cooper, was generously agreeed to help and supervise my thesis. Now the time is back to me again.

Through this thesis writing process, for example, I have learned that I will never expect too much from others, but never settle little for myself. I have talked to many people on my research topic, but some, who I thought would help, were just not interested. Some, who I did not expect, ended up giving me a lot of help. It is true that my standard is high, as I often joked with my friends that I wanted to a Nobel Prize winner, or likely, to direct my thesis. Unless I got a Ph. D in Economics, there is no way to find a Nobel Laureate to supervise my thesis.

Overall, I am honored to have Professor Cooper to supervise my thesis, as well as many friends helping me with comments and editing. Today was one of those happiest days in my life.

It is interesting to think of happiness. There are many versions of definitions, from psychological interpretation to economic definition, from mental notion to constitutional stipulation. Happiness perhaps is just a feeling. I remembered that the most popular course at Harvard based upon the number of students enrollment was happiness, or something related to happiness and psychology course in 2007, according an article on the New York Times.  Many psychologists, economists, and doctors are looking for happiness in academic settings. Many scholars tried to explain anything with psychology due to the emerging trend today. Many economists tried to explained economic phenomenon by borrowing psychological experiment. Many lawyers tried to explain the legal reality by exerting to psychological theories. Many doctors are trying to figure out how actually the brain works . . . There are many theories and there are emerging articles on such topic.

What I learn from many published experiments, and my personal experience is that my feeling of happiness is that I never expect too much from others, and never settle too little for myself. It has been enforced in many interesting experiments, such as . . .

To be continued . . .

Now what, China — the China?

Everything is going unconventionally. In Old Age people were burned by saying the earth is round. However, today Thomas Friedman is popular by publishing the World Is Flat. In the old days China is known as a Forbidden City, but now the China has become an world economic center.

If you haven’t heard of the latest news, you might continue reading this article. Now PetroChina, just go through Initial Public Offering in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, becomes the largest oil and gas company in the world with twice as much the capital as Exxon Mobile (the number two by then). Now let us run some Number One’s.

PetroChina is the largest Oil and Gas company by capital in the world.

China Life Insurance is the largest Insurance Company by capital in the world.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is the largest Bank by capital in the world.

China Mobile has the largest subscriber in the world.

Well, what’s it all about? Why the newly listed public-traded Chinese companies are so attractive? Is it babble behind all those Number One’s? There are many theories behind it, mostly from the economic perspectives, such as emerging market, state-planning policy, and infantry of the stock market. However, there is a new cultural facet as well. Being the number one or break the record is the dream and the pride of all Chinese people. Three-Gorge Dam …Damn to be the largest. The National
Beijing Theater gonna be the largest. The stock market gonna be the largest. . . . Well it is good when we run the figures while listening to the buzz — the largest. It is good because it show the attraction to the foreign investment; it is good because it will drive local and global economic growth; it is good because it will bring welfare to local and global citizens. People will keep pouring more money into the Stock Market nowadays with pride and enjoyment.

At the moment, it is a great scene and hopefully it will be happy ever after. The Chinese economy is still young, the intact market is still large, and the growth is still prominent. Now what? What will be the next thing after those glamorous achievement, which can be marked on the tomb stone of current leaders, as Thomas Jefferson put only three of his greatest achievements as his epitaph.

What really need to do is to cement the babble and transform the babble into the solid material; in other words, it might not be babble only if the China does something about it. Perhaps it is a dream, perhaps it is crazy, and yet it makes sense if you know the PetroChina, ICBC, and etc., from unknown to the largest industrial leader in the world. All of it happened over night of the Initial Public Offering. Nothing else can’t it have done? There might be one, which has been neglected by almost all the people in the whole country, politics.

In order to consolidate the growth of this unthinkable achievement, which is a huge babble from everyone’s eyes, the China needs to bring more political legitimacy (no matter what flavor, western democracy or Chinese Rules with special characteristics, or blend) to its citizens; to enforce the election law to elect, not appoint, real representatives to their constituencies; and to give more power to the people, but rather the public servants. Only if the China provides more protections and benefits for the people, especially ordinary people, to secure the colossal progress of its economic power, which is also determined by economic principles (either Marx to Smith or Ricardo. . .) China is on the edge of the cliff. It is dangerous but curable. If the China can build a 3-Gorge Dam across the Yangzi River, it can also build a freeway to transform the cliff. It is called being safe after being in danger.

That is so what? And that is so, the China.

To be continued.

Chapter Seven

Maneuver

In the real test day, all the strategy is developed based upon the numerous times of practice of the released tests. The good test takers need to adjust to the best situation during the test day. Doing the test in the real situation is totally different than the practice one in terms of the settings, the pressure, or the timing. The physical and mental situations vary between the real test and the practice one. In order to get better result, you need to change the unchangeable and take advantage the disadvantage. You thus need to maneuver the test to favor you regardless.

There are several ways to doing it, such as breaking the numerical order of the questions. Then you tackle the easiest one correctly and then go back to examine the hard ones. That is called the strategic skipping. By doing so, you might be able to turn the difficulty level that is against you to favor you.

The questions given by the LSAC are easy to the good test takers and bad for the bad test takers. It is just like two sides of the coin. Someone might think it is hard while other think differently. Therefore, maneuver is important to do the LSAT during the test day. If you want to weigh all the questions indifferently, the result is you won’t only get enough time, but you will lose free gift – getting easy questions wrong. However, if you think you will answer the hard questions first so that you left the easy questions to the end so that you do not have to think too hard on them when you are tired, then you are perhaps wrong. In this way, you will lose more scores due to the fact that you won’t be able to get to them. Even if you allocate time evenly, you will not give enough time for the hard ones while you miss too much valuable, but limited, time to answer easy ones. You will be puzzling about what you have missed even though you manage to finish all the questions at the end. If you answer the hard questions first, that is even worse, you will not only spent too much time on one questions, and left most unanswered, and you score will drop. It is you who is taking the test, but rather the test to you. It speeds up the fatigue process of the body and makes you more exhausted and overwhelmed even in the middle of the test. Therefore, balancing the time based on what says here. The time cannot be allocated too much for each question more than needed, but it cannot be allocated less time to questions that you do not have the time to think of it in a strategic way. So the time is the most important issue here.

So if you do not know the different questions types, you cannot succeed in the test; if you do not know which one at which you are most good answering, you cannot take it; if you do not know how long you can keep up with the consuming tests, you cannot get the highest score out of the test.

In addition, the good test takers are good at knowing themselves. They will use the limited energy to get the maximum results, they will balance the time to skip around to achieve the highest score, and they will answer the easy questions fast and correctly. All these are depending on your skills trained to spot the right answer creatively. Therefore, if you do take the test in the real test day, you will get the right answer out of the easiest questions, skip the hard questions to the end, eliminate the wrong answers that are either irrelevant or reverse, and select the right ones without a hitch. Doing the test in a way that get the more right answers than other test takers while finishing the test in a manner that is most in favor of you, you will get higher score than others.

If there are different types of questions in one page, just answer them all if they are all in you favor. Turn over your page if you do not even know what they are talking about, even though you are good at this questions type.

Therefore, the one who knows and reads this will get the higher score thereafter since it tells the secret of the LSAT. In the real test is like fight a war, you have to make a strategic planning and prepare yourself. Failing in a test is no difference than losing a war. So you have to have the consistent marks for your exam. You need to mark something that does only mean something to you. As long as you see the marks, you will react instantly where should you go and whether you will move on with this questions or not.(in the analytic questions, you need to know whether you will know the answer or in the reading you will see the clue or road map.) In this way, you do not have to worry about how long or how weird the passages are. You know where to move on and where to skip, where to find the answer and where to make an educated guess, and where the right answer lies and where the wrong answer hinds.

In addition, the energy you have keeps you from tiredness, and the strategy out of practice clears your mind to think fast. You are usually energetic at the beginning of each section, but less at the end thereof. So good test takers are left the hardest to the very end and answer the easiest earlier. So you need to do the easy question fast, assuring to answer those correctly with zero error. Also you need to leave the hardest to the end and answer it by elimination and guessing intelligently. In this way, you will turn over the force of the LSAC to confuse you, weaken its energy to exhaust you, and maneuver it in your favor. It is called to change the unchanged and beat the unbeatable. In this way, you drive the course of the test and determine the result, rather than you are anxious of waiting for the result without knowing how well you had done. It is another secret of the LSAT; in a word, maneuver.

In the next few chapters, you will know there are total several types of questions in the three kinds of passages. You can never mistake them, but you can easily to mess them up. You use different setting of strategy to ace different types of passages. Make sure you know the difficulty level in each kind of passages. That is important as others.

To be continued….

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DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.MANEUVERING

1. Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his
commands from the sovereign.

2. Having collected an army and concentrated his forces,
he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof
before pitching his camp.

3. After that, comes tactical maneuvering,
than which there is nothing more difficult.
The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists
in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

4. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route,
after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting
after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him,
shows knowledge of the artifice of DEVIATION.

5. Maneuvering with an army is advantageous;
with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

6. If you set a fully equipped army in march in order
to snatch an advantage, the chances are that you will be
too late. On the other hand, to detach a flying column
for the purpose involves the sacrifice of its baggage
and stores.

7. Thus, if you order your men to roll up their
buff-coats, and make forced marches without halting day
or night, covering double the usual distance at a stretch,
doing a hundred LI in order to wrest an advantage,
the leaders of all your three divisions will fall into
the hands of the enemy.

8. The stronger men will be in front, the jaded
ones will fall behind, and on this plan only one-tenth
of your army will reach its destination.

9. If you march fifty LI in order to outmaneuver
the enemy, you will lose the leader of your first division,
and only half your force will reach the goal.

10. If you march thirty LI with the same object,
two-thirds of your army will arrive.

11. We may take it then that an army without its
baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost;
without bases of supply it is lost.

12. We cannot enter into alliances until we are
acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.

13. We are not fit to lead an army on the march
unless we are familiar with the face of the country–its
mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices,
its marshes and swamps.

14. We shall be unable to turn natural advantage
to account unless we make use of local guides.

15. In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.

16. Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops,
must be decided by circumstances.

17. Let your rapidity be that of the wind,
your compactness that of the forest.

18. In raiding and plundering be like fire,
is immovability like a mountain.

19. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night,
and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

20. When you plunder a countryside, let the spoil be
divided amongst your men; when you capture new territory,
cut it up into allotments for the benefit of the soldiery.

21. Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.

22. He will conquer who has learnt the artifice
of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.

23. The Book of Army Management says: On the field
of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough:
hence the institution of gongs and drums. Nor can ordinary
objects be seen clearly enough: hence the institution
of banners and flags.

24. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means
whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused
on one particular point.

25. The host thus forming a single united body,
is it impossible either for the brave to advance alone,
or for the cowardly to retreat alone. This is the art
of handling large masses of men.

26. In night-fighting, then, make much use of signal-fires
and drums, and in fighting by day, of flags and banners,
as a means of influencing the ears and eyes of your army.

27. A whole army may be robbed of its spirit;
a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.

28. Now a soldier’s spirit is keenest in the morning;
by noonday it has begun to flag; and in the evening,
his mind is bent only on returning to camp.

29. A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when
its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish
and inclined to return. This is the art of studying moods.

30. Disciplined and calm, to await the appearance
of disorder and hubbub amongst the enemy:–this is the art
of retaining self-possession.

31. To be near the goal while the enemy is still
far from it, to wait at ease while the enemy is
toiling and struggling, to be well-fed while the enemy
is famished:–this is the art of husbanding one’s strength.

32. To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose
banners are in perfect order, to refrain from attacking
an army drawn up in calm and confident array:–this
is the art of studying circumstances.

33. It is a military axiom not to advance uphill
against the enemy, nor to oppose him when he comes downhill.

34. Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight;
do not attack soldiers whose temper is keen.

35. Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy.
Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

36. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

37. Such is the art of warfare.

Chapter Four

Practice

In the LSAT history, a good test taker presumes s/he is going to fail while the test is really hard. To arm test takers against failure lies in our own hands, but the difficulty of the questions is provided by the LSAC itself. Thus, a good test taker will strengthen and secure them while weakening the positions of the difficulty of the tests. Thus you can hope to win but there is no guarantee of winning. If you assess that you will lose, just wait for longer before you take the real test. If you think you can ace it, go ahead and take it. If you hold then you need to force you to practice more tests; if you decide to take the test, then you need to be confident to ace it. Those who do not feel comfortable to do the real test just go ahead and delay the LSAT while those who are good at taking the LSAT just move on and ace it. It is the strategy of defense and attack, in similar words, hope for the best while preparing for the worst.

To know what other people have known is not a master LSAT taker. To ace the test without knowing why one did it is not a master test taker. It is just like to lift a hair cannot be called great strength, to see the sun or moon cannot be regarded as sharp sight. To hear the sound of thunder is no sign of a quick ear. The LSAT masters are getting very high score without any exhaustion or feeling bad. The good test taker who gets the highest score will not necessary the smartest or the bravest. The reason of getting 180 is to seize the right opportunity to win. Therefore, the good test takers are good at securing their own advantage – knowing which questions are easy and which are hard, but protecting their disadvantage – practicing more wrong questions. Thus, the good test takers are winners before they take the test. The losers lose before they take the test in the same way. Therefore, those who are good at the LSAT are stimulating the desire to ace it and practice more to get the feeling to do so. Thus they ace the LSAT methodologically.

The method of the exam is that: measurement, estimation, calculation, balancing and victory. The practice leads to measurement; measurement leads to estimation, estimation leads to calculation.…

In addition, the good test takers are good at detailed things; in contrast, losers do not care tiny things at all.

In conclusion, the secret here is that: the winners are practice and practice to arm its brain to win the Law School Admission Test (LSAT); it is all the practice.

Chapter Two

Waging War

On the real test day (only four times a year), you need the four sharpened 2-B or HB pencils, one watch or timer, eraser, ticket to the LSAT, and your snacks and drinks. As long as you have the logistics ready you can go and take the test with your confident out of the practice. When you go to a test less prepared, your patience will weaken, your brain will grow seemingly dull. When the intensity is high and the pressure is on the rise during the test, you will be overwhelmed and disoriented by that. If you are preparing without necessary practice, the test will drive you crazy due to the intensity of the test and long hour of mentally exercise. Specifically, when you do the third section before the break, the time and pressure will drive you crazy: you will get overwhelmed and exhausted, your brain will become dull and unclear, you will feel sick and abnormal, and all the tests will suddenly become a monster to you to scare you. If so, you might not get only the normal result you expected, even you are super smart. Therefore, the hasty and unpreparedness of test taker will lose whatsoever. We have never heard of anyone who are unprepared can ace the LSAT. If you do not know the disadvantages of you, you will not know or better use your strength of you in a whole.

So my point here is whoever, good at taking the test, never stop practicing or delay it more than twice, never take breaks more than 3 times during the full test. Mastering the time and making full use the resource you available during the test, then you do not have to worry about or complain the time and paper not enough.

You are frustrated by the lack of time and paper is due to the mental sickness of the test – long hour, super intensive exam. The long hour and intensity of the test cause test takes to be exhausted. Weakened body causes your brain to consume more of your energy, and thus impacts on your blood flow to react sharply or even normally. Therefore, you will become less confident and irritated by the fact. Then you will become more exhausted and more burn more energy viciously. The loss of time in the real test is at the ratio of 10: 3. The loss of your time in the real test means: you will not finish your test, you will not remember of any of the strategies, you will get a feeling of sickness of mentally ill and physically sick. All this will cause the test result much worse.

In addition, the wise test taker would take advantage of the real time allotted rather than time needed. It accretes by seconds. One second in the real test situation equals 20 seconds in the practice test. The energy exhausted in the test is equals 20 times of that in the practice test.

In order to ace the test, you need to adjust yourself to the best of yourself during the test. Besides, you also need to award yourself if you get higher score during the test, even the practice one. Reward is a integral part of the process of acing the exam. After each, including practice, test, you need to always remember to reward yourself. For examples, giving yourself a big meal, watching a favorite movie, or watching red sox game when you get a higher score each time. The test is deadly hard, even god knows it, so it is your challenge to practice. It is challenging, and thus it is rewarding as well. But you need you to practice and practice. Therefore, it is called acing the test while you are doing the test.

Besides, it is better to ace the LSAT in shorter time rather than longer.

In conclusion, the leader who knows the questions, and who understand the tactics and rules, will take full control of the test and drive it toward test taker’s advantage.

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DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.

II. WAGING WAR

1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war,
where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots,
as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand
mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them
a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front,
including entertainment of guests, small items such as
glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor,
will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day.
Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory
is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and
their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town,
you will exhaust your strength.
3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources
of the State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped,
your strength exhausted and your treasure spent,
other chieftains will spring up to take advantage
of your extremity. Then no man, however wise,
will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,
cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited
from prolonged warfare.

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted
with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand
the profitable way of carrying it on.

8. The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy,
neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.

9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage
on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough
for its needs.

10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army
to be maintained by contributions from a distance.
Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes
the people to be impoverished.

11. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes
prices to go up; and high prices cause the people’s
substance to be drained away.

12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry
will be afflicted by heavy exactions.

13,14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion
of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare,
and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated;
while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses,
breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields,
protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons,
will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue.

15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging
on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy’s provisions
is equivalent to twenty of one’s own, and likewise
a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty
from one’s own store.

16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must
be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from
defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.

17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots
have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first.
Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,
and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours.
The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.

18. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment
one’s own strength.

19. In war, then, let your great object be victory,
not lengthy campaigns.

20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies
is the arbiter of the people’s fate, the man on whom it
depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.

Chapter One

Planning

The secret of LSAT is important for your application to the law schools. It is a determining factor of whether you will win or lose when applying to the law school, and thus cannot be neglected.

The secret of LSAT is governed by five factors: Law, Heaven, Earth, Leader, and maintenance. The Law is the way in which the LSAC conducts the test. The Haven means the settings of the test. The Earth means the derivatives of the test. Leader means the test taker with the virtue of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, bravery and discipline. The Maintenance consists of the scheduling, relaxing, timing, logistics, and et cetera. These five determining factors are so important that the one who knows it wins, and the one who knows nothing about will not win. Thus you need to pay more attention on it and ask yourself the following questions before you take the test.

Which test taker has more discipline?

Which test taker has more capability?

Who can maneuver the environment and different settings of the test?

Whose practice is more systematic?

Which test taker is good at the test?

Which test taker is good at timing?

By examining those questions, we (or yourself) can predict whether you will beat the crap out of LSAT.

By test takers who take the advise would ace the LSAT; who without taking note of it will definitely lose.

You have to be consistence with this strategy. Then for awhile practicing this strategy, you will get used to it and then it is becoming more powerful, thereof helping you to ace the most difficult test. By learning the strategy, you will also be at ease with the law school exams after you are in.

The LSAT, in a word, is deception. When the argument is in flaw, it asks you to strengthen it. When it is solid, you are asked to weaken so. When it seems difficult to understand, it asks very simple questions, vice versa. Thus the test takers need to use the solid and systematic training to conquer it. Use the wisdom to beat it. Use the principle derived from the practice to beat the variations of the test. Use your strength to tackle the test’s weakness. Use your timing skill to skip around to find the weakest point of the test to guarantee the easy points. Use your confident to surpass others without the preparedness. Prepare the test thoroughly to stand out than others. When you do not understand the questions or the subjects thereof, just skip it. Attack the test where you prepared most, and skip the questions you had most trouble with. It, all the secret of the LSAT, is unprecedented.

Before you take the test, whenever practicing, showing you are ready, you will be better off when you do the real test; whenever practicing with negative result,

you have less chance to get better result on the test day. More practice is better than less practice, more calculation is better than less, let alone no practice or no calculation at all. By calculating the practice result, we can predict who will get 180 and who will get at least 120 (everyone will at least get the minimum 120.)

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DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.

The Art of War

By Sun Tzu

Translated by Lionel Giles

Chapter One. Laying Plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.

10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:–

13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.

15. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:–let such a one be dismissed!

16. While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.

17. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one’s plans.

18. All warfare is based on deception.

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.

22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.

24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

25. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.

26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

The Art of War and Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

Sun Tzu is one of the greatest strategist in Ancient China, Han Dynasty, and his book the Art of War is also the oldest war book in the world. It heritages until now and there are numerous world leaders using it, it has been translated to hundreds of languages worldwide…. All the facts is that there is the treasure of the world and therefore should be available to the global citizens. It is very short and very easy to read if you are Chinese, even it is written in a traditional way. It is very easy to read even if you are foreigners, it is not a problem either. I will show what I learned what he told me through his words, representing of the wisdom of the world assets.

I am so delighted to be born in Chinese and educated in different countries so as to be able to read this concise but meaningful work by Sun Tzu (aka Sun Zi). Success by itself has no meaning to my life but help others to success is better. I am going to give you the translated version of the book in a way in which law school applicants can use it to launch the Art of War to ace the LSAT.

The rest of the world is learning English for a buzz, but Goldman took different approaches. It needs its chief to learn Chinese instead.

“Goldman Sachs Group could not promote its co-head of investment banking in Asia to the post of chief executive of its Beijing joint venture because his knowledge of the Chinese language was too weak, three bankers at the firm have said.” from International Herald Tribune (July 13, 2007).

It is a trend of learning Chinese as important as learning English due to the economy booming, tourists surging, and culture exchanging. Chinese or China is such a buzz word in almost anywhere — from the major newspapers to most influential TVs, from economic forums to law seminars, and from leading universities to shadow streets. GS takes advantages of the golden opportunities to launch Chinese business by appointing executives with Chinese expertise.

The lesson for today is to learn the Chinese before or during your tenure at money-generating firms, such as Investment Bank Goldman Sachs. Chinese learning is also an investment for your financial future, the same as learning English.