If you want to remove someone from their position, start by withholding the funds necessary for them to perform their key responsibilities. This will cause the person to incur debts. These debts can then be used as a pretext to justify their removal from office and subsequent punishment. Ensure that the debts are portrayed as illegitimate, so that the creditors themselves may demand repayment from the person, further pressuring them. Thus you have punished the person financially without trouble.

If the individual you want to remove is currently in the ruler’s favor, entrust this individual with a sum of money or an item that the ruler or his wife cherishes. Remove the entrusted item from the person secretly by night, making it appear as a harmless prank or jest. At the same time, the ruler should be warned to beware of treachery, and that the servant has been corrupted. All these things must be planned in advance.

If you fear that the person you are removing, such as a general, may cause trouble, arrange for them to be discreetly detained while ensuring that their absence does not raise suspicion or alarm. Finally, hand over their army to an equal, give payment to the army from your own funds, lest they miss their lost general.

If someone argues too forcefully during a discussion or debate, claiming something false, have them write down and sign their opinion. This record can be used to challenge their argument later.

If you notice an arrogant and unqualified individual seeking your office (for example, if you are a general, as this type is especially prone to rivalry), take the following actions: provoke the enemy, create difficulties for the proud man, while still ensuring that you have sufficient provisions for yourself and your fortress. Pretend to be distracted by another war and suggest that he should replace you in your position. Do not give him an account of the war, the places, or the enemy. As a result, he will encounter difficulties. Do not rush to his aid until he acknowledges both his own shortcomings and your greater expertise and authority.

If you need to manipulate some young people and make them more compliant, encourage them to engage in activities like singing, painting, and sculpting, which will divert their attention and make them more pliable. Assign them tutors who are desperate servants, lacking in honesty, entirely corrupt, and prone to indulging the desires of youths rather than guiding them properly. Likewise, assign unscrupulous servants to those you wish to manipulate, enabling the servants to take advantage of their employer’s weakened and exposed state. Similarly, send lazy and ineffective subordinates to a lazy and ineffective superior.

Arrange for an unknown person to send fabricated letters that appear to be written by the targeted individual’s friend. Ensure that these letters are misplaced, as if through the bearer’s carelessness, so that they may be read by many. This will undermine the targeted individual’s affairs and reputation.

Overwhelm the targeted individual with numerous tasks simultaneously, ensuring that he accomplishes nothing of significance. Persuade him to seek and ask for many things.

Kill the animals he cherishes by feeding them foods laced with pepper or saffron, which will make them rabid. Secretly administer drugs to the horse he is about to ride, so that when he mounts the horse, it becomes furious.

Propose immense rewards for him to enter, for instance, the lion’s den - you will see him fall into an evidently dangerous situation.