Stratagem-thinking in the Books of Wisdom in relation to Chinese history and culture

The article analyzes conditions that led to creation of Books of Widsom in the Late Ming Dynasty. There were examined links between the work and modern literature, certain relation to ancient classical Chinese in its Anecdote-Style Novels language. It shows what influence the official Chinese historiography exerts on the structure and the contents of Book of Wisdom. There is found difference from that evaluation of mandarins'' deeds known from «Record of deeds and sayings of famous officials». There is shown Li Zhi’s role in making new evaluation trends by uncovering new classification bases of people’s deeds. The general evaluation is based on the degree and the quality of the evinced wisdom. The article also considers the change in Chinese thought during the Wanli reign. The most significant changes to mention are shaping of worldview syncretism and convergence of diverse and rival doctrines. The military thought is viewed to affect social and political doctrines. Civil thinkers of that time showed particular interest in efficacious, non-power methods for conflict management. The main condition for creating Books of Wisdom is a sense of danger or even imminence pertaining to accomplished and thinking part of the society which was always on call to alter their reality. All Books of Wisdom appeared almost at the same time (between 1614 and 1626) and it does not feel accidental. The Ming authors begin to ponder about the positive essence of behavioral strategies and stratagems in particular. Books of Wisdom appear to be a collection of complex classifications. Their texts fall into topics with occasional comments. The simplest structural unit will be an anecdote or a description of an ordinary man’s deed. The emergence of Books of Wisdom during the last years of the Ming Dynasty feels abundantly strange when it comes to history of the Chinese philosophy. Contents of the work display one of its basic categories - namely, zhi wisdom. However, the category was viewed insignificant by Ming philosophers.