THE ART OF WAR

Author: Sun Tzu
Year: 2019 (1910/~500 BC)
Publisher: Modernista
Language: Swedish (translator Bertil Häggman)

Some 500 years BC, or so the story goes, Sun Wu applied for a position as a military commander at the helm of King Helu’s army in what is today the Southern Jiangsu province of China. To test his leadership skills, the king asked him to train the royal concubines in performing military manoeuvres. Sun Wu accepted the challenge, divided the concubines into two groups, and appointed the king’s two favourite mistresses as officers in charge of each of them respectively. He proceeded to give the women basic military training but when it was time to present the king with the results, the women could not help but giggle and, understandably, make a joke out of the whole situation. Sun Wu declared that if the subordinates fail to obey orders, it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that the orders have been clearly communicated and correctly understood. He therefore resumed training and applied strict pedagogical assiduity to secure complete understanding among the king’s concubines. Upon the next performance in front of the king, the women again found the situation bizarre and giggled through it. Sun Wu then declared that if the orders have been understood but still not followed, it is the fault of the officers, and had both the king’s favourite concubines severely punished, some versions of the story say executed. After this, Sun Wu no longer experienced any problems in exercising control over the women in his two units. And that is how he got the job.

Many years later, now known by his honorary name Sun Tzu, he would put his experiences, observations, and theories from and about the battle field into writing in what is today known as “Krigets konst” (“The Art of War”) in the Western world. Across 383 maxims grouped into 13 chapters dealing with such things as planning and evaluating, cunning, terrain, manoeuvring, attack by fire, and the usage of spies, Sun Tzu shares his philosophy on how to command an army and lead it to victory.

Unlike many other texts from antiquity, Sun Tzu’s writing was never lost and rediscovered but seems to have been part of Chinese philosophy, military training, and history since its inception until today. This notwithstanding, the origins of the book and even the purported originator himself remain disputed. The name of Sun Wu does not show up in the historical record until at last 300 years after his assumed death and is conspicuously missing from a contemporary source, Zuo Zhuan, that lists the most influential civil servants of the realm, including military commanders, and ought to have included a person as illustrious as he is claimed to have been. Furthermore, the name Sun Tzu simply means ‘Master Sun’ in Mandarin and it appears that there was another member of the Sun family a few generations later, Sun Bin whose historicity can be unambiguously confirmed, and he went by the honorary name Sun Tzu as well. It could well be that the two were conflated over time.

Whoever took the time to write down their thoughts about warfare in the 5^th century BC, the effort was not in vain. Military commanders, but also rulers, business leaders, teachers, philosophers, and artists over the centuries have drawn inspiration from the wisdom contained therein. However, as history has shown, the structure of the book, although simple and translucent, does provoke some misunderstanding. As is far too common in the world, many readers have difficulties grasping a bigger picture if faced with a smorgasbord of easily digestible information nuggets. Consequently, it is easy to understand why some reviews point to one part of the book as the key, omitting another that some other review might in turn consider essential. After all, this is how most Christian fundamentalists read the Bible. One may see declarations such as ‘The Art of War is about deception’ or ‘the best way to win a battle is to make your troops desperate.’   

I do not by any means claim to understand “Krigets konst” better than anyone else, but as a person who has spent most of his professional life in management positions in one way or another, my observation is that the leitmotif throughout Sun Tzu’s notes is knowledge, preparation, and patience.

The knowledge about the soldiers. Knowledge about the enemy. Knowledge about the terrain. Knowledge about technology and weapons. This also includes the obstruction of the enemy’s knowledge which is where deception and spreading of false information comes into the picture.

“All warfare is based on deception”

“Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may prevent him from fighting. Scheme so as to discover his plans and the likelihood of their success. Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity.”

Preparation is about ensuring allegiance of the troops before marching out. Preparing exit routes and defence lines. Preparation of supply lines and marching paths. And preparation by acquiring knowledge.

“Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle, we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight.”

“Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”

Patience, to tie it all together, can be applied to taking the time to prepare properly and making sense of collected intelligence. Patience is not allowing oneself to be provoked.

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy”

“He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.”

Co-incidentally; knowledge, preparation, and patience also seem to align with the five traditional cardinal virtues in the Chinese culture which are benevolence, uprightness of mind, self-control, wisdom, and sincerity, which are values that Sun Tzu must have been intimately familiar with.

Lastly, a few notes on the translation. The first translation into French came as early as 1772 and is likely to have been read by Napoleon Bonaparte. However, not until the English translation by Lionel Giles in 1910 did the book gain global fame, which was further amplified by the success of Mao Zedong in defeating the nationalists and establishing the People’s Republic of China. Lionel Giles work has since become the benchmark for many other translations, including the one into Swedish that I have read. I find Bertil Häggman’s version from 1989 to be airy with a good flow, but I am particularly happy that the translation also includes Lionel Giles’ annotations which, although not always comprehensible, provide context and oftentimes detailed explanations of what it is we are reading. When it comes to reading antique Chinese texts on warfare, at least This Banker sometimes needs a helping hand to put the pieces together.