運yùn籌chóu帷wéi幄wò

What does 運籌帷幄 (yùn chóu wéi wò) mean?

運籌帷幄 (yùn chóu wéi wò) is a four-character classical idiom (chéngyǔ 成語). Word for word it reads "devising strategies inside the command tent." In use it means: Planning masterfully behind the scenes; the intellectual work that wins battles before they start. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Water note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Rat.

Literally: "devising strategies inside the command tent."

The reading

Zhang Liang sat in the tent and moved pieces on the map. A thousand miles away, the battle unfolded exactly as the map predicted. The general in the field gets the credit. The strategist in the tent gets the victory. Most of the decisive work in any endeavor happens in rooms that the audience never sees, by people the audience never hears of.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typechéngyǔ 成語
• FocusLooks back
• Element水 Water
• Zodiac tie鼠 Year of the Rat

Source Records of the Grand Historian 史記, Gaozu biography (高祖本紀); Liu Bang on Zhang Liang

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in Courage & Decisive Action, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Rat, Year of the Ox, and Year of the Tiger.