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world Scmp World 2026-03-28

Ancient Chinese Self-Help Text Resurfaces as Relevant Advice for Modern Careers

A recently rediscovered ancient Chinese text shares similarities with Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People', offering timeless advice for personal and professional relationships.


The way Stephen Selby tells it, Guiguzi (鬼谷子) sounds like the ancient Chinese version of Dale Carnegie’s enduring self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Given its contents and message, it should have been a text for the ages. After all, whether ancient, modern, postmodern, Eastern or Western, many of us still need to kiss up to wayward bosses and stroke their egos if we want to advance our careers – not to mention ancient despots who could chop off your head for saying the...

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