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Bandkanon -> RE: Sun Tzu... (4/20/2011 4:55:50 PM)
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My favorite quote from Sun Tzu is
"If you know yourself and know your enemy, one hundred battles one hundred victories;
If you know yourself but do not know your enemy, then for every victory you will suffer a loss;
If you do not know yourself and do not know your enemy, you will always be defeated."
I think most Westerners miss a key aspect about Sun Tzu's Art of War, that it is not about war in its purest sense. Sun Tzu lived in the Spring and Autumn Period of China when China consisted of dozens if not hundreds of feudal states all vying for survival. His Art of War was a reflection of those times of political uncertainty, and much of it is about the relationships between the state, its ruler, and its ministers and how those roles should be used in order to initiate and complete a successful war in all of its aspects politically, culturally, and militarily.
An important second point of context is that during the Spring and Autumn Period, there were numerous teachers who were espousing their ideas about how to administer the state and its people by the ruler and his ministers. Sun Tzu was just one of them. His ideas were not of particular significance during that time. However, his most important ideas, I think, was the separation of the authority of the ruler with the command of his generals and the complete utilization of the state and its economy and society to the pursuit of war. These ideas were brought to its most distilled philosophy under the Legalists such as Han Feizi and put to brutal and efficient use by prime minister Lisi for the state of Chin. Chin in a short span of time was able to conquer the other 6 large states surrounding it and unite China under its first real emperor, Chin Shi Huangdi.
To wrap it all up, the Art of War is a strategy of patience and waiting, something the West and Americans in general are not comfortable with pursuing as a viable advantage. But if you read the news and observe the trends that China is pursuing in growing its political and economic power, you can clearly perceive that its leaders have read the Art of War and are using some of its teachings to great effect. Whether that effect is positive or negative in the long term is debatable, but Sun Tzu is certainly still alive and kicking (our American butts, again).
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