The Art of War
Around 300 BC, during the Warring States period, a general called Sun Tzu wrote a book about the best ways to win wars, called The Art of War. Sun Tzu's main point was that in a war (or in business or politics) there is always one side competing against another side. If you just make a plan for your side and stick to your plan, you will lose, because your plan will be messed up by the other side's plan. Also, the environment could change - there might be a storm, or a flood. Instead, you have to use a more general strategy, so you can respond to different situations quickly as they come up.
There are thirteen chapters in the Art of War. The first chapter warns you to always consider all the variables before making your plan - the weather, Taoist principles, the land, what kind of leaders you have, and so on. The second chapter advises you to consider how much your plan will cost - to win, you have to keep your costs down, both in money and in men. In the third chapter, Sun Tzu tells you that the winning side is not the side with the most people, but the side that works together best.
In the fourth chapter, you learn to defend the land you already hold, and to find natural opportunities to get more, rather than trying to force things to happen (this is again a Taoist idea). The fifth chapter emphasizes the importance of good timing. Chapter 6 explains that you'll find natural opportunities by looking for your enemy's weaknesses, and so on. Finally, in the last chapter, Sun Tzu discussed the importance of spies and other sources of information - you have to know what is going on in order to win.
Some famous quotes from the Art of War:
- If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a thousand battles without a single loss.
- Winning one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.
- All warfare is based on lies and tricks.
To read the Art of War for yourself, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong (1999).
Eyewitness: Ancient China, by Arthur Cotterell, Alan Hills, and Geoff Brightling (2000). For kids, with lots of excellent pictures.
There's a popular video game based on this story, too. Here are some links to it:
Main Chinese literature page
Main China page
