OFFICE OF THE RECORDS — PATTERN FILE
PATTERN 32-43
ACTIVEDURATION resolving to BREAKTHROUGH. Filed under: locked contention, mutual exhaustion, the third who arrives.

INDEX ENTRY — ON FILE BEFORE EVERY INCIDENT BELOW
爭雞失羊,亡其金囊,利不得長,陳蔡之患。
Fighting over the chicken they lost the sheep, and the purse with it; profit held by contention does not last — the peril between Chen and Cai.
published fragment: Jiaoshi Yilin, c. 40 BC — the entry predates all surviving copies
LOGGED OCCURRENCES
- 489 BCthe straits between Chen and Cai
the straits between Chen and Cai — the master starved while states contended around him. Filed under the pattern's earlier run.
- EARLY 3RD C. BCThe Clam and the Snipe
Estuary, dawn. Snipe's beak clamped in clam's shell; each waiting on the other's death, quoting weather at each other. Filed as ENTRY 005/64.
- 1914THE CONTENTION THAT LOCKED A CONTINENT
Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to Serbia. Russia mobilized for Serbia. Germany mobilized for Austria-Hungary. France mobilized for Russia. The empires locked through the Danube valley, each refusing to release the other. The third who arrived in 1917 was the United States.
- 1945THE SURRENDER THAT ENDED BOTH CONTENTIONS
Japan surrendered on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Germany had surrendered three months earlier in a railway carriage at Reims. The empire that had watched both wars from across the Atlantic stepped forward to receive the second surrender.
Cited by card ENTRY 005/64 · The Clam and the Snipe — The Records, Deck 1.
STILL RUNNING