Han Gongzhong of the state of Han sent a messenger to Xiang Shou, saying: "To capture him, or to appoint him as prime minister, is not a matter that benefits one who holds a state. Moreover, Qin is powerful and Han is weak; Han is certain to be captured by Qin. Now the resentment of Han toward Qin is not a matter of a day or two. At present, the King of Qin has stationed you at Yiyang, yet has ordered Han's Prime Minister Gongzhong to encamp his troops along the border—this is a sign that Qin intends to attack Han. Han has not yet been able to ally with Qin, and so Gongzhong, in fear, wishes to unite with Qin, but worries that Qin will not agree, and therefore has sent me to make this request. If the Great King will heed my counsel, then Han will surely ally with Qin, and Qin and Han will become one body, whereupon Chu will not dare to act rashly. If he does not heed it, then Han will surely turn to Chu, and with Han and Chu united, Qin will inevitably come under attack. This is the crux of safety and peril—I hope the Great King will perceive it clearly." Xiang Shou said: "Well said. I shall request to report this to the King of Qin on your behalf."
💡 商战启示录
This dialogue reveals a pivotal strategy in the Vertical and Horizontal Alliances of the Warring States period: in a contest where strength is vastly imbalanced, the weaker party secures survival by proactively extending goodwill and binding the stronger party's interests to its own, while the stronger party must weigh the short-term gains of conquest against the long-term benefits of alliance. Similar cases abound in modern commercial warfare. For instance, in 2016, when Didi merged with Uber China, what appeared on the surface to be Didi "swallowing" its rival was in fact a compromise reached after a grueling subsidy war—the merger created a monopolistic advantage and averted mutual ruin, much as Gong Zhong had counseled: the weaker party (Uber) sued for peace, the stronger (Didi) accepted the alliance, and together they fended off external threats (such as Shenzhou Special Car). Another example is how small enterprises often bind themselves to giants through "acquisition" or "strategic partnership"—Meituan accepted Tencent's investment in exchange for traffic support, thereby avoiding encirclement by the Alibaba camp. The core of Gong Zhong's strategy lies in this: the weak must exploit the strategic anxieties of the strong (such as Qin's fear of a Chu-Han alliance), using "shared interests" as leverage rather than mere supplication. Xiang Shou, as the intermediary, played the role of a mediator balancing the interests of all parties—a reminder that executives in modern business must navigate a dynamic equilibrium between competition and symbiosis, avoiding zero-sum games. The modern lesson of this strategy is that commercial rivalry need not be limited to annexation or confrontation; timely alliance and the interlocking of interests can secure maximum safety at minimal cost. Especially in industries with asymmetric resources, the weak must proactively design "win-win" solutions, while the strong must guard against the shortsightedness of "winning the battle but losing the war."