Information as Asset Archives - understand-culture

Foreknowledge

The Art of War closes with a chapter on the use of spies. “What enables the wise ruler and the good general to move and conquer, and to achieve more than the many, is foreknowledge. Foreknowledge cannot be drawn from spirits, cannot be inferred from past events and cannot be tested by calculation. It must come from people who know the enemy’s situation.”

The chapter counts the cost of a war in thousands of gold a day. A general who grudges “ranks, salaries and a hundred pieces of gold” and so does not know the enemy “is the height of inhumanity.” “In the affairs of the army, none is closer than the spy, no reward is richer than the spy’s, and no matter is more secret than spying.”

Zhang Song’s Map

In chapter 60 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Song comes from Shu to see Cao Cao. Cao Cao finds him ugly, takes offense at his answers and leaves the room. Zhang Song then visits Liu Bei. Liu Bei feasts him for three days and never mentions Shu. At last, Zhang Song takes from his sleeve a map of Sichuan that he had drawn in secret and hands it to Liu Bei.

The Records of the Three Kingdoms gives a shorter version. Cao Cao “did not take Zhang Song on, and Zhang Song resented it.” Back home, he urged his lord, Liu Zhang, to break with Cao Cao and to make contact with Liu Bei.

Xu You Comes Over

At the battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao’s adviser Xu You went over to Cao Cao. The Records of the Three Kingdoms says he “was greedy for wealth, and Yuan Shao could not satisfy him.” He urged Cao Cao to attack Chunyu Qiong and his troops. Cao Cao did, and Yuan Shao’s army collapsed.

A commentary quotes an older account of the meeting. Cao Cao ran out barefoot to greet Xu You. Xu You asked how much grain was left. “Enough for a year,” said Cao Cao. “Not so. Say it again.” “Half a year.” “Why do you not tell the truth?” At last Cao Cao admitted that there was enough for one month. Only then did Xu You tell him that Yuan Shao’s supply wagons stood at Gushi and Wuchao, poorly guarded.

Song Jiang’s Warning

In chapter 18 of the Water Margin, in its 100-chapter version, the county clerk Song Jiang learns that his friend Chao Gai is to be arrested. He tells the arresting officer that this official business “must not be leaked lightly to anyone.” Then he leaves the officer waiting in a teahouse and gallops off to warn Chao Gai. “He and I are bound heart and belly,” Chao Gai tells the others. “He is my sworn brother.”

In chapter 20, Chao Gai, now the leader at Liangshan, sends Liu Tang with a letter and a hundred taels of gold, to thank Song Jiang for saving their lives. Song Jiang keeps the letter and takes one bar of the gold.

Holding Back a Move

In his essay Secrets of Writing (作文秘诀), Lu Xun wrote: “A boxing master holds back a move when he teaches his pupils. He fears that once they have learned everything, they will beat him to death and take his place.”

Doctors have secret prescriptions, cooks secret methods and pastry shops secret recipes. “To protect their family’s livelihood, it is said, these are taught only to the sons’ wives and not to the daughters, so that they do not pass to other families.”

The phrase is 留一手, to keep back one hand. The Handian dictionary defines it as keeping some skills back and not bringing them out. A popular tale tells how the cat taught the tiger everything except how to climb trees. When the tiger tried to eat its teacher, the cat escaped up a tree.

The Vocabulary of Inside News

卖关子 To sell the key point. To hold back the crucial part on purpose and keep others waiting for it.

通风报信 To let the wind through and report the news. To pass one side’s secrets to the other side in secret.

小道消息 News from the side road. News that does not come through official channels and is often unreliable.

看家本领 The skill that guards the house. A skill in which a person is especially strong. The dictionary’s example says: “This is his house-guarding skill. No one else can learn it.”

Yunnan Baiyao

According to National Business Daily, the Qu family gave the secret formula of the herbal medicine Yunnan Baiyao to the government of Yunnan province. China Securities Journal reports that in 1956, the State Council’s secrecy committee placed its prescription and process within the scope of state secrets.

The Paper reports that in August 1984, the State Pharmaceutical Administration listed the formula and process as a top state secret (国家绝密). It adds that Yunnan Baiyao is among the top-secret herbal medicines designated by the Ministry of Health, and that its period of secrecy is “long-term.”

The Information Gap

信息差, the information gap, is a Chinese term for how money is made. In 2024, the business site Jiemian wrote: “The information gap, simply put, is what you know and others do not. What others need, you can provide.” Turning such gaps into leads and selling them, the article said, “has become a way to make money.”

In September 2026, an article on the Beijing News site, credited to Rizhao News Network, asked what business had really been about for the past twenty years. “The information gap. You know a channel that others do not, and you make money.”

The Rat Warehouse

老鼠仓, a rat warehouse, is the popular name for trading on unpublished information obtained through one’s position, other than inside information, in breach of the rules.

The case of Ma Le, a fund manager at Bosera Asset Management, was reported as the largest of its kind in the country. He first received a suspended sentence. On December 11, 2015, on retrial, the Supreme People’s Court sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of 19.13 million yuan.