0. Editor’s Note

The Great Stratagem of Lady Ikedanbu — Judith Huang

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The Great Stratagem
of Lady Ikedanbu

Judith Huang

Judith Huang is a Singaporean Australian author, poet, science fiction translator, serial-arts-collective-founder and multimedia artist.

Her first novel, Sofia and the Utopia Machine, a speculative fiction novel about immersive worlds, was shortlisted for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2017 and Singapore Book Awards 2019.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Bobo rolled onto his back, pointing his black paws up into the air, rolling out the kinks in his spine.

A couple of squeals of delight, and a collective, appreciative Awwwwww rose up from beyond his enclosure.

Bobo trained a lazy eye on his little flock of human admirers. Mingming, the current female assigned to be his consort, was sleeping in the artificial cave again. Bobo lumbered over to the TV in the corner to check if there were new pornos for him to watch.

Ah, there was An-An, his mate from two seasons ago, copulating with his elder brother. Bobo wandered away again out of a mixture of boredom and embarrassment.

No matter how long his species had spent studying their one-time adversaries and erstwhile benefactors, he never could understand this about them. Who wanted to watch their ex-lovers and relatives copulating? Was this what humans did? Did they like watching their parents screw on video in order to get in the mood to fuck their second cousin? Because that's what they expected his species to do.

Aside from this little annoyance, Bobo had to admire how far his people had come. Picking through the abundant succulent young bamboo leaves that his attendant had left him, he masticated his way through the fifth hour of eating that day. In the old days, he would have had to gather all these tender young shoots and leaves himself.

Bless you, Lady Ikedanbu, he said, looking up into the sky. He sent a little numina her way, in honour of her memory, knowing it would reach her through time and space. If not for your Great Stratagem, we would have had a lot more to worry about than sub-par adult entertainment. He thought back to the stories every young panda knew from the mists of time of their great ancestor.

In war, avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.

— Sun Tzu

Ikedanbu lowered her head as she approached the body. As she pushed it onto its back, her worst fears were confirmed: it was Ikebanju, her great-aunt, the eldest female in their clan. It had to be, this was her territory. She had chosen to starve to death rather than see any of the younger ones die by encroaching on their territory. Something had to be done.

Ikedanbu did not particularly like the company of other pandas. She had left her scent messages for the Council to gather with utmost reluctance, but these were extraordinary times.

Hasuran, her mate from three seasons ago, was the first to arrive. He greeted her. Soon, six other shapes emerged from between the dense bamboo, and the unusual sight of the Council - eight fully-grown pandas, along with a still-unnamed cub, gathered on Ikedanbu's territory.

"The humans are getting bolder," said Hasuran. "The eastern side of the mountains were free of them before, but now they venture there as well, and wherever they go, their axes follow. It will not be long before even Baturu's territory is felled."

"We cannot keep retreating," said Ikedanbu. "They may be cunning and vicious, but they are not without their weakness. There are others who have learned to live with them, even tame them. Our weakness can be a strength... I have two words for the Council's consideration: weaponised cuteness."

Know the enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

— Sun Tzu

Xiao Wang was searching for his family's duck's eggs on the edge of the forest when he saw it - a bundle of fur emerging from the gloom. He was frightened at first, then laughed when he saw that the young panda was no taller than his waist.

The bear tumbled back onto its back, stretching its legs up above him playfully, then peeked at him from the side. Xiao Wang clapped his hands, imitated the bear and did a full backflip for good measure.

"Wait here," he gasped, after playing with the cub for a good half hour. He brought his mother with him, who agreed to feed and look after the cub.

Soon, the cub was entertaining the whole village, and had even been named "Wang Momo" by Xiao Wang's family, after the ink-like splashes on his face and haunches.

Each night, as the villagers slept, Momo went to the edge of the forest, sending numina to Ikedanbu, along with his observations of the humans, and receiving her instructions the same way.

They like it when we amuse them.

Their young are small and helpless, and if we are small and helpless, they will associate us with their young, and protect us.

If we are to live with them, we must accept their artificial spaces, infiltrate them so they will be designed for our comfort.

Although this may be difficult, we will adapt.

People from all over the province were eager to see the performing Momo, and his happy human family. Sure enough, before long the village gained fame as the home of Momo, the performing panda.

As soon as Ikedanbu realized that this may trigger a rush of panda cub kidnappings, she preempted it by expanding her plan.

Mysteriously, abandoned panda cubs started appearing in the surrounding villages as well. Invariably, these cubs always turned up at the doorstep of a prominent family with the ability to host entertainments. The province became famous for its performing pandas, and there was a strange aura to the families blessed with their new family members.

Before long, superstitions began to arise among the villagers hoping to be blessed with a cub of their own. There were whispers of a panda god, or a panda spirit, that was blessing the area for an unknown reason. These legends spread far and wide, even to the ears of the encroaching Europeans.

If your forces are ten to the enemy's one, surround him; if five to one, attack him; if twice as numerous, divide your army into two.

— Sun Tzu

We have observed divisions among the humans.

There particular humans, paler than the others, who are feared and held in high esteem.

They do not observe the rules of the villages.

They come and go as they please, and the villagers resent them but do nothing about it.

It would be well to receive the guardianship of one such human.

The only pale woman of the group had on strange garments that made her look alien. With her was a Chinese man unlike any other he had met - almost a head taller than any Chinese he had seen, and fluent, it seemed, in the Western language and ways. He has been her guide. The woman laughed and spoke and moved so loudly and freely, especially when Momo did the backflips and cuddled up to her boots and skirts.

When she demanded that Momo be brought with her to the big city, Xiao Wang's family was paid handsomely for their loss of income. Soon, the first panda cub, styled as the socialite's furry "daughter", was on his way to the big city. Shanghai. San Francisco. New York.

I go now where none of our kind has gone before.

These cities - forests of stone where the trees stand in rows like servants - these seem to be the true forests of the humans.

It seems that we are to ford a great river, a body of water so large it dwarfs a mountain.

I will do this for us, although I may lose my life.

I never let the woman know what I truly think of her.

She thinks I am a tool for her advancement, when in fact she is a tool for ours.

Momo, now known as "Su-Lin", was introduced to the leading lights of human society as the socialite's animal-child. The leaders, movers and shakers of the day - presidents, preachers, celebrities, philanthropists, all paid him court. To these he would, as per Ikedanbu's instructions, always appear vulnerable, playful, naive. An encounter with Momo invariably brought out the soft side of even the hardest man, and soon their pocketbooks would open to feed and protect him and his people.

Each night, whether he was on a moving train or a foreign city, whether he was among a forest of stone or a forest of trees, he would stand in the open and send his numina, across the vast expanse that divided them to Ikedanbu. Everywhere he went, every enclosure he was kept in, he was always provided with enough supple bamboo, and through this subtle force, he always learned the next move. He was part of a mighty army - an army that charmed rather than fought, which was appropriating the adversary's resources even as they fell under their spell.

They think in symbols, not in realities.

They have great resources, but waste them on trivial markers of status and rank.

They are desperate to cooperate when they think an adversary greater than them, but quick to renege on an agreement with one who is weaker.

Anything can be a mark of status, but the rarer it is, the more they crave it, even if it has no visible use.

We must become symbols to them of prestige, for they will do anything to preserve this unmeasurable substance, although it is far less useful than our numina.

"It is more important to out-think your enemy, than to outfight him"

— Sun Tzu

1939: Momo, aka "Su-Lin", infiltrates high society in America, becoming the first panda explorer to another country and continent. His cuteness spreads widespread adoration and a desire to preserve our people.

1961: The Wild Wildlife Foundation adopts Chi-Chi, one of our great panda emissaries, as a mascot not just for panda conservation but for all environmental conservation, cementing our place as a symbol tied into humanity's ego and self-regard.

1970: The People's Republic of China aligns with our interests, sending us abroad as gifts and greatly expanding our territory.

1984 - 90s : Our presence becomes a great symbol of a rising superpower's favor, as many nations long for our divine blessing, forking over huge sums for the privilege of housing us for display and adoration for a limited time, among their local populace.

2006: Over 40 reserves are preserved for our people in the home provinces, and anyone who hunts us is universally loathed. Despite our obvious success, humans are even more concerned about our survival than before, bending over backwards to ensure it.

Bobo climbed onto his favourite shelf and lay back, enjoying the abundant sunlight of the late autumn afternoon. He stared up into the sky, contemplating his life of security and leisure. He composed a little message to send out tonight to his disciples - for just as Ikebandu had cultivated her army of cubs, each loyal and obedient to her, each senior panda now had younger ones under their instruction, wherever they were in the world.

Nations rise and fall, empires dissolve and disintegrate. Many species common in Ikedanbu's day have fallen to the weaponry of the humans, or worse, squeezed to extinction by their indifference.

But our people now live in territories spanning the known earth, in luxury and comfort, with many human attendants that go to great lengths to ensure our comfort and the continued longevity of our species. Our people now enjoy travel to exotic destinations in 10 year tours of duty. From our adversaries, humans have become our greatest benefactors, even more invested in our continued existence than we are ourselves. Momo's sacrifice, and the sacrifice of the early panda troops, though far from their birth mothers and far from their natural territories, were not in vain.

So adored are we by the humans, and so vital are our survival, both as individuals and as a species, to the intricate diplomatic dance that ensures their balances of power, that we are virtually guaranteed to survive them.

Truly, Ikebandu knew what she was doing. Send her your numina tonight in gratitude for her Supreme Stratagem.

Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thus you will direct the opponent's fate.

— Sun Tzu