Surrounding Army Must Leave a Gap
Updated 2026-08-02
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Surrounding Army Must Leave a Gap comes from Sun Tzu's Art of War. When encircling an enemy, leave one side open so they can see a way out; a force with no exit fights with the desperation of a cornered animal and becomes harder to defeat, while a force with an exit can be broken up or driven off. In medicine the principle applies to excess patterns: do not close in from all sides on accumulated food or oedema, but leave an outlet such as purgation or sweating so the pathogen can leave.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Leaving an Exit: give the other side a route out instead of pressing until they must fight. - Reducing Desperation: use the visible way out to lower the chance of a last-ditch struggle. - Redirecting Flow: guide the problem out through an opening rather than destroying it in place.
Anchor fast decisions
A cornered opponent has nothing left to lose, so resistance rises to its maximum and the cost of victory climbs. A visible exit restores the option of survival, which makes withdrawal preferable to a costly fight. The same logic applies to a pathogen: with no outlet it turns inward and damages deeper structures, while with an outlet it can be expelled.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- baike.baidu.comhttps://baike.baidu.com/view/111199.htmverified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS