The principle underlying the Strategems is to gain an advantage for oneself or a third party. There are Strategems of various categories such as gain, encirclement, concealment, deception, temptation, and escape; actual lists and tricks whose application is equally possible in political as well as private life, according to Harro von Senger.

For thousands of years, the Chinese have refined the Strategems. They can be found in textbooks as well as in philosophical and religious writings, novels, fairy tales, novellas, dramas, operas, films, and newspapers. In this way, they have become common knowledge and permeate almost all areas of human life. Those who master them create advantages that are useful in various social contexts. Politicians use them just as writers, lawyers, or men and women in their relationships do.

In Volume I of his Strategems, Harro von Senger discusses Strategems 1 to 18. With the second volume and his discussions on Strategems 19 to 36, the author completes his extensive work on the 36 Strategems.