36 Kế & 36 Đối Kế

36 Kế & 36 Đối Kế is a Vietnamese-language strategy book built around the classical Chinese text Tam Thập Lục Kế (the Thirty-Six Stratagems), a centuries-old compilation of military and political maneuvers, several with roots traceable to Sun Tzu's Art of War and other classical Chinese strategic writing. The book's distinguishing structural feature, as described in publisher and bookseller material, is that it does not simply present the 36 stratagems in isolation, but pairs each one with a corresponding "đối kế" (counter-stratagem) — a defensive or neutralizing response — giving the book a total of 72 paired techniques addressed at difficulties in both business and everyday life.

The book opens by tracing the broader tradition of Chinese strategic writing that the 36 Stratagems belongs to, referencing earlier and adjacent traditions like Hàn Phi Tử (Legalist political philosophy), Tôn Tử Binh Pháp (Sun Tzu's Art of War), and Quỷ Cốc Tử (a tradition more focused on diplomatic and persuasive stratagem), positioning the 36 Stratagems as the most widely circulated and applied of these traditions in China and beyond.

A notable claim made in the book's own framing, per available bookseller descriptions, is that this particular treatment updates the classical system: where the traditional 36 Stratagems developed primarily for military use includes techniques with ethically loaded framings (such as "borrowing a knife to kill" or "looting a burning house"), this book's authors present a reworked system whose stated values and definitions are explicitly adapted for contemporary ethical and social context, rather than a straight reproduction of the historical military framing.

Each of the 36 primary stratagems and its paired counter-stratagem is illustrated with historical anecdotes (frequently drawn from Chinese dynastic history and court intrigue) and modern applications spanning negotiation, competitive business situations, workplace politics, and personal relationships — with the explicit stated aim of equipping readers to recognize when a stratagem is being used against them, not only to use one themselves. The book positions this dual defensive-and-offensive framing as its key differentiator from more traditional presentations of the 36 Stratagems, which typically present the techniques without a parallel structure for countering them.