The chap­ter opens with an explo­ration of the dan­gers of unchecked emo­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly anger, and how they can lead to poor deci­sion-mak­ing. His­to­ry has shown that lead­ers who suc­cumb to their emo­tions often find them­selves at a dis­ad­van­tage, as their reac­tions become trans­par­ent and eas­i­ly exploit­ed. Greene presents the exam­ple of Itaku­ra Shige­mu­ne, the Kyoto Shoshidai, who remained com­posed dur­ing tri­als by engag­ing in Cha-no-yu, the tra­di­tion­al tea cer­e­mo­ny, using the act of tea grind­ing as a med­i­ta­tive prac­tice. This abil­i­ty to main­tain con­trol in tense sit­u­a­tions allowed him to gov­ern effec­tive­ly, prov­ing that seren­i­ty in the face of adver­si­ty can be a pow­er­ful tool.

In con­trast, Greene high­lights how Napoleon Bonaparte’s uncon­trolled anger led to his down­fall, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his deal­ings with Tal­leyrand, his once-loy­al min­is­ter. Upon dis­cov­er­ing Talleyrand’s betray­al, Napoleon allowed his fury to take over, berat­ing him pub­licly and show­ing vis­i­ble dis­tress before his advi­sors. Instead of han­dling the sit­u­a­tion with mea­sured cal­cu­la­tion, Napoleon’s dis­play of rage dimin­ished his author­i­ty and sig­naled his vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. This moment marked the begin­ning of his decline, illus­trat­ing how pow­er­ful fig­ures who lose con­trol of their emo­tions invite chal­lenges to their lead­er­ship.

The chap­ter also dis­cuss­es the strate­gic use of psy­cho­log­i­cal manip­u­la­tion in war­fare and pol­i­tics. Greene exam­ines Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, who suc­cess­ful­ly bait­ed Ras Gugsa into a pre­ma­ture rebel­lion by exploit­ing his arro­gance and spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion. By main­tain­ing his com­po­sure and orches­trat­ing events from behind the scenes, Selassie ensured that his rival made crit­i­cal mis­takes, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing to his defeat. This tac­tic aligns with the broad­er theme of this law: dis­rupt­ing an opponent’s emo­tion­al bal­ance leads to their down­fall, pro­vid­ed one main­tains their own sta­bil­i­ty.

Anoth­er anal­o­gy Greene employs is the “Pond of Fish”—a metaphor describ­ing how stir­ring the waters rep­re­sents pro­vok­ing emo­tions in adver­saries, mak­ing them more vis­i­ble and sus­cep­ti­ble to attack. When the waters are calm, fish can remain hid­den, much like a com­posed indi­vid­ual who con­ceals their true inten­tions. How­ev­er, when the waters are agi­tat­ed, fish become exposed, sym­bol­iz­ing an oppo­nent who, when pro­voked, reveals their weak­ness­es. This con­cept illus­trates the impor­tance of incit­ing emo­tion­al reac­tions in oth­ers while remain­ing unread­able and com­posed one­self.

The dis­cus­sion extends to mil­i­tary his­to­ry, where Ts’ao Ts’ao and Sun Pin mas­ter­ful­ly used decep­tion and emo­tion­al trig­gers to con­trol their ene­mies. Ts’ao Ts’ao, an infa­mous war­lord, manip­u­lat­ed oppo­nents into overex­tend­ing them­selves by spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion, ensur­ing they act­ed impul­sive­ly rather than strate­gi­cal­ly. Sun Pin, anoth­er Chi­nese mil­i­tary strate­gist, orches­trat­ed a psy­cho­log­i­cal trap by mak­ing his ene­mies believe his forces were weak, lur­ing them into a false sense of secu­ri­ty before strik­ing at the per­fect moment. These his­tor­i­cal exam­ples empha­size that those who pro­voke emo­tion­al respons­es while remain­ing ratio­nal them­selves hold a sig­nif­i­cant strate­gic advan­tage.

How­ev­er, Greene also warns that pro­vok­ing emo­tions must be done care­ful­ly, as some adver­saries may prove more resilient than expect­ed. The siege of Tyre by Alexan­der the Great serves as a cau­tion­ary tale. Alexander’s ini­tial efforts to pro­voke Tyre’s sur­ren­der failed, as the city’s defend­ers proved unex­pect­ed­ly resource­ful and deter­mined. His aggres­sive approach pro­longed the bat­tle, lead­ing to unnec­es­sary loss­es and delays. This serves as a reminder that not all oppo­nents react pre­dictably, and some con­flicts require a blend of patience and pres­sure rather than out­right provo­ca­tion.

In con­clu­sion, Law 39 advo­cates for stay­ing emo­tion­al­ly detached while incit­ing emo­tion­al reac­tions in oppo­nents as a means to gain con­trol. Those who mas­ter their emo­tions can guide con­flicts in their favor, while those who react impul­sive­ly fall into traps laid for them. Greene’s his­tor­i­cal exam­ples rein­force that lead­ers, strate­gists, and any­one in pow­er must rec­og­nize the val­ue of calm cal­cu­la­tion and the dan­gers of let­ting emo­tions dic­tate actions. The key take­away is that emo­tion­al intelligence—knowing when to stir up emo­tions in oth­ers while main­tain­ing per­son­al composure—is a fun­da­men­tal skill for gain­ing influ­ence and pow­er.