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The Art of War
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The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time.
The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has had a huge influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond.
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Encyclopedia
The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time.
The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has had a huge influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu recognized the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a competitive environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.
The book was first translated into the French language in 1782 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and into English by Sinologist Lionel Giles in 1910. It very likely influenced Napoleon, and the planning of Operation Desert Storm. Leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, and General Douglas MacArthur have claimed to have drawn inspiration from the work.
The Art of War has also been applied to business and managerial strategies.
The 13 chapters
The Art of War is divided into 13 chapters (or P'ien), and the collection is referred to as being one Ch'üan ("whole" or alternatively "chronicle"). As different translations have used differing titles for each chapter, a selection appears below. Lionel Giles' 1910 translation is considered the standard reference, but the other titles are, given the nature of translation, equally valid.
Lionel Giles (1910)
- I. Laying Plans
- II. Waging War
- III. Attack by Stratagem
- IV. Tactical Dispositions
- V. Energy
- VI. Weak Points and Strong
- VII. Maneuvering
- VIII. Variation of Tactics
- IX. The Army on the March
- X. Terrain
- XI. The Nine Situations
- XII. The Attack by Fire
- XIII. The Use of Spies
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R.L. Wing (1988)
- I. The Calculations
- II. The Challenge
- III. The Plan of Attack
- IV. Positioning
- V. Directing
- VI. Illusion and Reality
- VII. Engaging The Force
- VIII. The Nine Variations
- IX. Moving The Force
- X. Situational Positioning
- XI. The Nine Situations
- XII. The Fiery Attack
- XIII. The Use of Intelligence
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Chow-Hou Wee (2003)
- I. Detail Assessment and Planning (Chinese: ??,??)
- II. Waging War (Chinese: ??,??)
- III. Strategic Attack (Chinese: ??,??)
- IV. Disposition of the Army (Chinese: ??,??)
- V. Forces (Chinese: ??,??)
- VI. Weaknesses and Strengths (Chinese: ??,??)
- VII. Military Maneuvers (Chinese: ??,??)
- VIII. Variations and Adaptability (Chinese: ??,??)
- IX. Movement and Development of Troops (Chinese: ??,??)
- X. Terrain (Chinese: ??)
- XI. The Nine Battlegrounds (Chinese: ??)
- XII. Attacking with Fire (Chinese: ??)
- XIII. Intelligence and Espionage (Chinese: ??,??)
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Chapter summary
- Laying Plans explores the five key elements that define competitive position (mission, climate, ground, leadership, and methods) and how to evaluate your competitive strengths against your competition.
- Waging War explains how to understand the economic nature of competition and how success requires making the winning play, which in turn, requires limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
- Attack by Stratagem defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and the five ingredients that you need to succeed in any competitive situation.
- Tactical Dispositions explains the importance of defending existing positions until you can advance them and how you must recognize opportunities, not try to create them.
- Energy explains the use of creativity and timing in building your competitive momentum.
- Weak Points & Strong explains how your opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of your competitors in a given area.
- Maneuvering explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon you.
- Variation in Tactics focuses on the need for flexibility in your responses. It explains how to respond to shifting circumstances successfully.
- The Army on the March describes the different situations in which you find yourselves as you move into new competitive arenas and how to respond to them. Much of it focuses on evaluating the intentions of others.
- Terrain looks at the three general areas of resistance (distance, dangers, and barriers) and the six types of ground positions that arise from them. Each of these six field positions offer certain advantages and disadvantages.
- The Nine Situations describe nine common situations (or stages) in a competitive campaign, from scattering to deadly, and the specific focus you need to successfully navigate each of them.
- The Attack by Fire explains the use of weapons generally and the use of the environment as a weapon specifically. It examines the five targets for attack, the five types of environmental attack, and the appropriate responses to such attack.
- The Use of Spies focuses on the importance of developing good information sources, specifically the five types of sources and how to manage them.
Annotations
Before the bamboo scroll version was discovered by archaeologists in April 1972, the most cited version of The Art of War was the Annotation of Sun Tzu's Strategies by Cao Cao, the founder of the Kingdom of Wei. In the preface, he wrote that previous annotations were not focused on the essential ideas. Other annotations cited in official history books include Shen You (176-204)'s Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, Jia Xu's Copy of Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, Cao Cao and Wang Ling's Sun Tzu's Military Strategy.
The Book of Sui documented seven books named after Sun Tzu. An annotation by Du Mu also includes Cao Cao's annotation. Li Jing's The Art of War is said to be a revision of Sun Tzu's strategies. Annotations by Cao Cao, Du Mu and Li Quan were translated into the Tangut language before 1040 AD. A book named Ten Schools of The Art of War Annotations was published before 1161 AD.
After the movable type printer was invented, The Art of War (with Cao Cao's annotations) was published as a military text book, known as Seven Military Classics with six other strategy books.
As a required reading military textbook since the Song Dynasty, Seven Military Classics (????,????) has many annotations. More than 30 differently annotated versions of this book exist today.
Vernacular Chinese became increasingly popular in the late 1920s. Annotations in Vernacular Chinese began to appear after this time. Some of these works were translated from other languages, such as Japanese.
The two most common traditional Chinese versions of the Art of War,
(the Complete Specialist Focus and Military Bible versions) were the sources for early translation into English and other languages. It was not until the 1970s that these works were compiled with more recent archeological discoveries into a single more complete version in Taipei. The resulting work is known as the Complete Version of Sun Tzu's Art of War for the National Defense Research Investigation Office has been the source for more recent and complete translations.
Quotations
Verses from the book occur in modern daily Chinese idioms and phrases, such as the last verse of Chapter 3:
- ??:????,????;??????,????;???,???,?????(??:????,????;??????,????;???,???,?????)
- So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
This has been more tersely interpreted and condensed into the modern proverb:
- ???? ???? (????,????)
- If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can come out of hundreds of battles without danger.
Many people interpret this sentence as 'If you know both sides, you will win a hundred times in one hundred battles. (???? ????)'. This translation is incorrect. The word '?' in Chinese means 'danger'. '?' in this sentence is better interpreted as 'numerous' rather than 'hundred'.
Furthermore, knowing both sides doesn't guarantee winning. '???? ????' ('If you know both sides, you will win a hundred times in one hundred battles') is untrue since in the beginning paragraph of chapter four, Sun Tzu wrote 'Hence, we can well predict who would win but there is no strategy guaranteeing winning (??: ???,?????)'. The reason for the uncertainty is chance or luck.
Similar verses have also been borrowed -- in a manner construing skillfulness as victory "without fighting" -- for example:
- ??????,??????;???????,??????
- Therefore one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.
And, the most famous quotation (chapter 1, paragraph 18):
- ?????
- All warfare is based on deception.
or, alternatively:
- Never will those who wage war tire of deception.
Military applications
In many East Asian countries, The Art of War was part of the syllabus for potential candidates of military service examinations. Various translations are available.
During the Sengoku era in Japan, a daimyo named Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) is said to have become almost invincible in all battles without relying on guns, because he studied The Art of War. The book even gave him the inspiration for his famous battle standard "Furinkazan" (Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain), meaning fast as the wind, silent as a forest, ferocious as fire and immovable as a mountain.
The translator Samuel B. Griffith offers a chapter on "Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung" where The Art of War is cited as influencing Mao's On Guerilla Warfare, On the Protracted War, and Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War and includes Mao's quote: "We must not belittle the saying in the book of Sun Wu Tzu, the great military expert of ancient China, 'Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a thousand battles without disaster.'"
During the Vietnam War, some Vietcong officers studied The Art of War, and reportedly could recite entire passages from memory.
The Department of the Army in the United States, through its Command and General Staff College, has directed all units to maintain libraries within their respective headquarters for the continuing education of personnel in the art of war. The Art of War is specifically mentioned by name as an example of works to be maintained at each individual unit, and staff duty officers are obliged to prepare short papers for presentation to other officers on their readings.
The Art of War is listed on the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program (formerly known as the Commandant's Reading List).
Applicability outside the military
Since at least the 1980s, The Art of War has been applied to fields well outside the military. Much of the text is about how to fight wars without actually having to do battle: it gives tips on how to outsmart one's opponent so that physical battle is not necessary. As such, it has found application as a training guide for many competitive endeavors that do not involve actual combat.
The book has gained popularity in corporate culture; there have been a variety of business books written applying its lessons to "office politics" and corporate strategy. Many Japanese companies make the book required reading for their key executives. The book is also popular among Western business management, who have turned to it for inspiration and advice on how to succeed in competitive business situations.
The Art of War has also been the subject of various law books and legal articles on the trial process, including negotiation tactics and trial strategy.
It has also crept its way into sport: Australian cricket coach John Buchanan handed out excerpts from the book to his players before a match against England in 2001, and the book is allegedly a favorite of University of South Carolina football head coach Steve Spurrier.
Football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari uses the book to help devise tactics. In the 2002 FIFA World Cup he gave each of his players copies. In the recent 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany he used the book to plan his team's win against England.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has listed it as one of his favorite books, and one he reads before the start of every season.
Former Irish rugby manager Eddie O'Sullivan has also used the book as a guide in how to prepare his teams.
On the popular reality television show Survivor: China, participants were given copies as a source of strategy and advice.
It has found use in political campaigning as well; Republican election strategist Lee Atwater claimed he traveled everywhere with it.
The book has also gained influence among players of strategy games, including TCGs, collectible miniatures games, and real-time strategy games.
The 1987 film Wall Street (film), Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox quote from The Art of War. Bud Fox stating: "Sun-tzu: If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not split and reevaluate.". Gordon Gekko stating: "I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.". Both relating to theoretical strategies in the Stock Market.
In the HBO television series The Sopranos, about a New Jersey organized crime family, the character Paulie Walnuts is given to quoting from The Art of War and is sometimes seen listening to an audio version while driving in his car.
Sources and translations
Includes English translation and original Chinese characters.
, includes the Yin-ch'ueh-shan (Silver Sparrow Mountain) texts
This edition was published as a tie-in with Clavell's Asian Saga; it is essentially a re-working of the Lionel Giles translation.
This translation tries to put The Art of War in its original context as a work of military strategy. It also includes a lengthy introduction and translations of some of the "bamboo strips" recovered from the shrine. This edition was released as an audio book in 2001, as read by actor Joe Mantegna.
This translation contains two parts. The first part is a completely unadorned, raw version of the core text. The second part is that same text with Chinese commentators as well as others.
This book is written by General Tao Hanzhang, a senior officer in the People's Liberation Army and a senior adviser to the Beijing Institute for International Strategic Studies.
Mr. Huang writes a new text based on manuscripts recently discovered in Linyi, China that predates all previous texts by as much as 1000 years.
This book is written by Samuel B. Griffith, Brigadier General (retired), U.S. Marine Corps., with a foreword by Sir B. H. Liddell Hart. "Wu Ch'i's Art of War" in six chapters is appended.
This book written by Donald Krause is interpreted for today's business reader.
Aimed mainly (but not exclusively) at the martial artist, Kaufman's rendition of Sun Tzu's work was written from the perspective of a Hanshi ("teacher of teachers").
- Sun Tzu translated by Paul Brennan (2007). The Art of War for Martial Artists. Odos Books. 2007. ISBN 978-1-60402-416-6
- Sun Tzu translated by Victor H. Mair (2007). The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13382-1
- Sun Tzu translated and annotated by Thomas Huynh and the Editors of Sonshi.com (2008). The Art of War: Spirituality for Conflict. Skylight Paths Publishing. ISBN 978-1-594-73244-7
See also
External links
- - English translation with embedded audio.
- , in Chinese and English
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