How to win friends and influence people in ancient China

Women, dressed in traditional Chinese outfits, seen in Beijing on January 14, 2026.

Photo: AFP The way Stephen Selby tells it, Guiguzi (鬼谷子) sounds like the ancient Chinese version of Dale Carnegie’s enduring self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Given its contents and message, it should have been a text for the ages.

After all, whether ancient, modern, postmodern, Eastern or Western, many of us still need to kiss up to wayward bosses and stroke their egos if we want to advance our careers – not to mention ancient despots who could chop off your head for saying the wrong thing.

However, while the text is well known, it has never enjoyed the same prestige as other ancient classics throughout the ages.

People can never agree on who wrote or compiled it, sometime between the Warring States Period and the Han dynasty.

I guess that really narrows it down.

Moreover, given its subject matter, it was, perhaps, considered somewhat inappropriate by the high moral standards – or, if you prefer, deep hypocrisy – of the dominant teachings of the Confucian school. “Guiguzi is a book that has been half-buried for thousands of years,” Selby told me. “It has also been the subject of endless doubts about its authenticity.

It is not a philosophical work, but a practical manual on how to persuade people in power, especially those who are liable to have you executed if they’re not happy hearing what you have to say.

You might find that quite a relevant concept in today’s world.” That sounds intriguing.

I have never read it, but now I am tempted to give it a go.

It’s a short book, and Selby, a former director of the Hong Kong government’s Intellectual Property Department, has given it a full English translation alongside the original Chinese text.

There is also a foreword and lengthy introduction to give the perplexed reader much-needed context.

Jobseekers get career information at a job fair in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on June 20, 2025.

Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images I wasn’t surprised that Selby translated Guiguzi, which he rendered as The Art of Persuasion, along with the alternative literal title of The Philosopher of the Ghost Vale.

The latter is a tribute to renowned sinologist Robert van Gulik, an early translator of the text, whose complete manuscript was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of China during the second world war.

In 2000, after working through ancient, mostly obscure sources, Selby published a history of Chine

原文链接: 南华早报