反客为主

Pronunciation: fǎn kè wéi zhǔ Literal meaning: Turn guest into host

Origin & Usage

The thirtieth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and the textbook illustration is Liu Bei in Yi Province: Liu Zhang invited him in as a guest to deal with Zhang Lu, quartered his troops and supplied them, and found by 214 that the guest held the province. The stratagem text describes the method as gradual — get a foot in the gap, take hold of the controls, advance by degrees. In Chinese social terms guest (客) and host (主) are strictly ranked, the host setting the terms and the guest accepting them, so reversing (反) them is a status inversion as much as a tactical one. It describes the consultant who ends up running the department, and the junior partner who ends up setting the agenda.

Examples

English: "In the meeting, she took charge and redirected the discussion to her agenda."

Chinese: 在会议上，她掌控了局面，将讨论引导到她的议程上。