Art of War (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Art of War (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) by Sunzi Page A

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Authors: Sunzi
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Nevertheless, his forces were soon after disastrously routed at the Fei River, and he was obliged to beat a hasty retreat.

    If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
     
    Chang Yü offers the best commentary. . . . He says that these words “have reference to attack and defence: knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive.” He adds, “Attack is the secret of defence; defence is the planning of an attack.” It would be hard to find a better epitome of the root-principle of war.

    This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end.
    Hesiod, Works and Days (c.800 B.C.)

IV. TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS

    Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an argument.
    Leon Trotsky (1932)

    The Chinese given as the heading here is a very comprehensive and somewhat vague term. . . . It is best taken as something between, or perhaps combining, “tactics” and “disposition of troops.” Ts’ao Kung explains it as “marching and countermarching on the part of the two armies with a view to discovering each other’s condition.” Tu Mu says: “It is through the dispositions of an army that its condition may be discovered. Conceal your dispositions, and your condition will remain secret, which leads to victory; show your dispositions, and your condition will become patent, which leads to defeat.” Wang Hsi remarks that the good general can “secure success by modifying his tactics to meet those of the enemy.”

    1. Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.
    2. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
     
    That is, of course, by a mistake on his part.

    3. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat,
     
    Chang Yü says: “By concealing the disposition of his troops, covering up his tracks, and taking unremitting precautions.”

    but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.
    4. Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.
    5. Security against defeat implies defensive tactics; ability to defeat the enemy means taking the offensive.
     
    The commentators are all against me. The meaning they give, “He who cannot conquer takes the defensive,” is plausible enough, but . . . highly improbable.

    6. Standing on the defensive indicates insufficient strength; attacking, a superabundance of strength.
    7. The general who is skilled in defence hides in the most secret recesses of the earth;
     
    Literally, “hides under the ninth earth,” which is a metaphor indicating the utmost secrecy and concealment, so that the enemy may not know his whereabouts.

    Batista has 3,000 men in the field against us. It is a battle against time, and time is on our side. They never know where we are, but we always know where they are.
    Fidel Castro (February 24, 1957)

    he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven.
     
    Another metaphor, implying that he falls on his adversary like a thunderbolt, against which there is no time to prepare. This is the opinion of most of the commentators, though Ts’ao Kung, followed by Tu Yu, explains “secret recesses” as the hills, rivers, and other natural features which will afford shelter or protection to the attacked, and “topmost heights of heaven” as the phases of weather which may be turned to account by the attacking party.

    Thus on the one hand we have ability to protect ourselves; on the other, a victory that is complete.
    8. To see victory only when it is within the ken of the

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