借尸还魂
Stratagems of Attacking · 攻战计Use something old or discarded as a vessel for new purposes. Revitalize old ideas, brands, or resources with new energy.
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu found a descendant of the old Chu royal family and installed him as a figurehead king. By "resurrecting" the Chu name through this figurehead, Xiang Yu legitimized his own rebellion and gathered widespread support.
Disney took old fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid) — "corpses" of traditional stories — and breathed new life into them through animation technology. The old vessels carried new creative souls to massive commercial success.
IBM was dying as a hardware company in the 1990s. Lou Gerstner used the IBM brand name (the "corpse") to resurrect the company as a consulting and services firm (the "soul"). The old name carried new business to profitability.