欲擒故纵

Pronunciation: yù qín gù zòng Literal meaning: Wishing to capture, first let go

Origin & Usage

Wanting (欲) to capture (擒) and therefore deliberately (故) letting go (纵). The sixteenth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and its argument is practical rather than psychological: an enemy pressed to the wall will fight, while one allowed to run wears himself out and loses cohesion, so the release is a way of taking the fight out before taking the prisoner. Zhuge Liang's seven captures and seven releases of Meng Huo is the standard illustration, and there the object was a surrender that would hold. Negotiation and parenting.

Examples

English: "The detective pretended to drop the case to make the suspect lower his guard."

Chinese: 侦探假装放弃案件，欲擒故纵，让嫌疑人放松警惕。