Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Sun Tzu - The Art of War

The link

The Art of War on Goodreads

What it is

“The Art of War” is an ancient Chinese text on military strategy written by Sun Tzu. Sun Wu, a Chinese general of renown from the 6^th century B.C., is often credited as the man behind ‘Sun Tzu’, but the exact origin of the text is stilldebated. It is entirely plausible that the text evolved over a period of time; the earliest version of the full text we now know as the “The Art of War” has been dated to 200-100 B.C.

Inannotated translation, the book is less than 100 pages. I reread it in an hour before writing this blog post (full disclosure: I did skip some of the anecdotes).

There are many English translations available; I haven’t made a study of which is best (my own copy was a gift). Just keep in mind the text is two thousand years old, and that Sun Tzu uses the occasional metaphor or exaggeration to make his point.

What it means to me

What can we learn from an ancient text on warfare, which dedicates separate chapters to terrain, to using fire, and to spies? Quite a lot, it turns out.

Early on, Sun Tzu writes that “If you know yourself and know your enemy, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles”. He contrasts this with only knowing yourself, in which case “you will suffer a defeat for every victory”. Needless to mention, not knowing either is a sure way to ruin. A large part of Sun Tzu's philosophy (explicitly outlined in the chapter on logistics) is that war is costly, draining, and fundamentally wasteful. This is why he advocates foreknowledge and striking only when you need to.

In fact, Sun Tzu wants to be so prepared that he doesn’t need to do battle, but that his superior position convinces his enemy to surrender instead: “the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won” (emphasis mine).

Sun Tzu really doesn’t like a fair fight, and advocates strongly against (literally) straightforward clashes of armies, because there’s no advantage to be gained anymore once you commit to such a battle. Better to bluff, to maneuver and to ambush; that gives you control over your fate. To quote the master: “All warfare is based on deception”. This includes disobedience of your own sovereign – “The Art of War” is adamant on splitting civil and military command.

Sun Tzu really teaches two things:

1. Be prepared
2. Break the rules

These fundamentals can be applied to anything. “The Art of War” saw a resurgence in popularity in 1980’s corporate boardrooms, where the military metaphors held up quite well to beating the competition. Most of us, however, lead a life without a single large enemy to focus our attention on. Sun Tzu can teach us that conflict is costly, and that decisions need to be committed to fully. Like G.Richard Shell, Sun Tzu emphasizes preparation, and critical thinking: never come to the field of battle on anyone’s terms but your own.

In a recent work related conversation, I was discussing whether to choose one thing or another. My counterpart told me I was looking at it wrong: the full set of options was much larger than just two. Why was I deliberately constraining myself? What could I find outside of the ‘conventional’ rules?

Sun Tzu is still very relevant, two thousand year later.


Leonard

(This is the first entry in a series of three reviews of famous works of Eastern Martial Philosophy. The second is Miyamoto Musashi – A Book of Five Rings ; the third one is Yamamoto Tsunemoto’s “Hagakure”.