Customer Reviews

The Art of War

5 star:		(90)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Many seem to think the only reason this book was written was for war strategy. The Ancients who wrote this thought more so of ways to enhance performance in general. That should not come as surprise to anyone slightly familiar with Oriental doctrines. A Mother could benefit from reading this book, then again a leader of a nuclear power as well. I strongly recommend another similar book titled SB 1 or God that speaks of the battle of Armageddon fighting the Chinese with modern strategy and weapons, also carries over to everyday tactics, By Karl Mark Maddox.

I read the book entitled, The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I feel that Sun Tzuï¿s purpose of writing this book is that of teaching war strategies. His emphasis was on not killing people, rather that of emerging victorious in the least amount of time. He was much more interested in confusion rather than massacre. Sun Tzu stresses that ï¿the warï¿ needs to be quickly won, he has been quoted to say, ï¿There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.ï¿ I believe that even today, these strategies that Sun Tzu came up with, prove to be effective. Deception, not necessarily deceit, is one of the principal concepts in this novel. Sun Tzu had first hand experience in The Art of War; therefore his essays are provoking and believable. Sun Tzuï¿s theories on war can be applied to a great many things, such as business and sports. Sun Tzu accomplished his goal, that being to teach people his theories on war. He was, during his time, a very unique man, and during our time, he still is a very unique man. The original novel was written by Sun Tzu in about 400 B.C. There has been much deliberation about when Sun Tzu existed, or even if he existed. It is only an approximation to say he was around in 400 B.C. Due to the words he uses and his descriptions of the time period, scholars have reach an approximate time in which he lived. The translator of Sun Tzuï¿s essays makes this information readily available and understandable. It has then been translated many times. I read the version translated by, Samuel B. Griffith. Samuel B. Griffith did an obscene amount of research on this project. He includes an extensive bibliography as well as a recognition page. Some of his sources include; The Taiheiki. A Chronicle of Medieval Japan by Helen Craig, The Analects of Confucius by Arthur Waley, and The Development of Iron and Steel Technology in China by J. Needham. He also included an introduction to make the fourth century B.C. more understandable. Griffith explained to the unknowing person why Sun Tzuï¿s essays were written. That was extremely helpful due to the fact I had little knowledge of that time period. There were also numerous other things that helped to make the novel clearer such as; maps to show monopolies, paintings of Sun Tzu himself, and various Chinese symbols. One such painting was entitled Sun Tzu Drilling the Concubines of King Ho-Lu. This picture shows Sun Tzu trying to confuse his enemies through training women. I believe that this man was enthralled with this translation. You can feel that from his writing. His writing, though overwhelming at first, is easily understandable and rather entertaining. He provides many different views on the some subject. I really enjoyed reading this book. All of Griffithï¿s enthusiasm poured into his writing made it a quick, entertaining read. I must admit, during the first part of the book, I was rather bored. There was so much history that was going on while reading, I saw no point to the book being written. As I got farther into The Art of War I began to see things in a different light. The words began to mean something to me. I was able to relate some of the phrases into my own life. That changed everything for me. In my mind, and hopefully in everyone elseï¿s mind that has read this book, this was indeed a book that needed to be written. I think that it should be required reading to all those studying business. It may seem weird that a book written about war pertains to business; however, many strategies taken metaphorically can help a great many people. People in the navy, military, or the army should read this book as well. I think it is rather obvious why they should read it though. If you do not fit into any of these categories, you should still read the essays. If not for anything else it can teach you quite a bit about early Chinese culture. I think any person can take away something from this book. Whether it is to not be so blunt, not let others control you, or something simpler like having a plan and accomplishing it in the shortest amount of time. I advise everyone to at least attempt to read these essays by Sun Tzu. You will not regret it.

It is interesting to note that all of the readers see this as a text on war, and how to beat your enemies. The first part of the book should be a leson to all of the war-mongers out there, that is If You Go To War You Have Already Lost. The consequences to your own people and soldiers and even the land must be counted for years after the battle is done. Sun-Tzu explains this well, and proceeds to explain how to wage a war causing the minimum amount of damage and suffering.

One would intuitively think that any book on war written thousands of years ago would long-since be rendered obsolete by all the technological advances in warfare that have occured over the past few centuries. Not so, says Sun Tzu. The present text is perhaps even more relevant today than when the master put pen to scribe.

The best generals throughout history (Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, Lee, Patton) have all either innately grasped the lessons of this book, or they have learned by reading from the master. The worst generals, on the other hand (Nicias, Crassus, Hooker, Burnside) have been oblivious to Sun Tzu's teachings - and more often than not they paid dearly for their shortcomings.

Much of THE ART OF WAR is straightforward. Some of it even falls under the category of common sense. Amazingly, even the most rudimentary instructions have been ignored by military leaders down through the ages.

If, perhaps, there is one single "golden" rule of warfare that Sun Tzu would ultimately allude to, it is this: warfare is a complicated business. Do not enter into it without thinking through what it is you wish to accomplish by going to war. Do not go into combat half-cocked, and don't rely on half-baked plans or half-wit generals.

The penalty for not following this dictum could very well be either your annihilation or the financial and materiel ruin of your society. For further elaboration on this point I will defer you to the Chinese sage himself.

Given the amount of information rendered by this book, it is a surprisingly quick read. As a bonus, we are also able to peruse the trenchant commentary of various other Chinese military persons.

This book is, quite simply, a must for the military historian - both amateur & professional. I would hope that it is standard reading for all major war colleges in my country. While the instruments of war change over the centuries, the rules of war remain constant.

Indeed, I am heartened to read one reviewer lambasting the general critical acceptance of "The Art of War" as "flowery". Unfortunately, most Westerners see Chinese philosophy as little more than yoga meditation and interior decoration. Of course, this is not the case.

Take, for example, Sun's "Art of War". Here is a man sick of watching ancient Chinese warlords wage war in a sloppy, haphazard fashion (more as a social tradition than anything else), wasting their populace's resources and lives. Thus, Sun writes a magnum opus discussing the proper means of waging war, from gaining the support of the people to clearly articulating goals to ensuring success of well-trained armies in short and long campaigns all the way to the minute details of using fire (even setting other people on fire). Far from the flowery rhetoric of most Western diatribes on Taoism and Buddhism and (enter your favorite Chinese term here), the Art of War is at once simple and immediate, which is why it has survived for 2500 years.

Griffith's translation of this work is masterful as well. Included are many of the commentaries of the ancient scholars (including, for you Three Kingdoms fans, copious amounts of Cao Cao), which show how Sun's text was used in various situations, both in war AND peace). Also, he includes an excellent introduction which places the work in its historical context and speaks of Mao Zedong's use of its precepts. Also are five appendices, one of which contains the other famous Art of War, that of Wu. I was particularly surprised at his none-too-flattering comments regarding the Japanese understanding of this work (truthfully, I think that too many people see the art of war in the Gordon Gecko, "Rising Sun" business sense), particularly in pointing out their blunders during WWII.

All in all, reader, you will be hard-pressed to find a better translation of this seminal work.

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is more than just a collection of common-sense adages. It is a comprehensive treatment of war and its relationship to society as a whole. At first, some of the selections seem obvious and naive. But then you come across a pearl of wisdom that really makes you think. And only after reading the entire book, and some historical backing too, do you realize what an achievement the book really is. Anyone that is interested in politics and warfare will find The Art of War to be very enlightening.

I don't really understand all the reviews about Sun Tzu's work. People saying that this one or that one is closer to the original; are there really that many experts in ancient Chinese out there. How can anyone say which is the best translation unless they are personally familiar with the original, in the original Chinese, and if that the case they should write their own version.

For years I've heard people refer to this book as the ultimate tactical planner's guide. However, I never took the time to read it because I was turned off by images of greedy, yuppie stockbrokers refering to this book as their Bible. I didn't want to read anything recommended by corporate head-hunter types. I detested those individuals and any philosophy they espoused.

However, when the war in Afghanistan started, I became fascinated with military tactics and questioned why we have to bomb everything in sight. Is that the only way to win a war and does bombing actually end the conflict or prolong it? I picked up this book hoping to glean some Eastern wisdom from the legendary Sun Tzu. I was not disappointed.

Sun Tzu confirmed everything my instincts had been telling me about this dunderheaded Clausewitzean approach to military tactics. The US's overrealiance on ordinance and smart munitions has resulted in us becoming more and more tactically and politically inept. Our military destroys infrastracture and imposes silly sanctions that only prolong the "total war". In the end we exhaust our resources, frustrate our troops, alieanate our public, and forever ruin the indigenous people's lives. The tragic irony being we do more damage to the people we are trying to save than the "enemy" could have done himself.

Individuals like Bin Laden could have been apprehended had we taken up the offers of the Sudanese or freed up the small tactical units that warned us of this nutjob years ago. Instead we blunder forward with our highly destructive and inevitably ineffectual answer which is attrition warfare. The same thing that probably got us in this mess in the first place.

Sun Tzu, amazingly enough, predicted 2,500 years ago that this total war approach (destroying your enemy's property, stealing the enemy's food and riches) was actually more destructive to the endgame and to the overrall political objective. He eloquently advanced the notion that the true art of war is to conquer your enemy without ever actually going to battle!

Sun Tzu's heavy emphasis on psychological warfare (using spies to spread rumors and cause division in enemy ranks, disguising troop movements by appearing more formidable than you actually are, and winning through skillful negotiation) all seem concepts lost on today political and military elite. Sun Tzu preached you must possess the victory BEFORE ever setting foot on the battlefield. Despite the book being a military manual, I was surprised at how much emphasis was placed on avoiding war and pursuing mental and psychological victories. When Sun Tzu preached "know your enemy" he wanted you to know the endgame. He wanted you to see the bloodshed and the loss and determine if it was even worth it to use military force in an effort to achieve a political objective.

Our "100 hour" wars have become decades-long nightmares. Our reliance on air bombardment is resulting in us ignoring many of the brilliant small unit tactics that Sun Tzu espoused, thus we've had to reign in even more fire from above because our troops down below are insufficiently trained. We've abandoned the principles of deception. Because of our overreliance on technology, we've abandoned using human intelligence (which Sun Tzu strongly espoused) thus we have no moles, no double agents, and inevitably, no reliable intelligence on our enemy. In short, we don't know our enemy. We've sold ourselves on Clausewitz' destructive theories of attrition warfare. We've forgotten that the most effective and most advanced weapon in our arsenal is our brain.

War is ugly, dirty, brutal, wasteful and expensive. That is the reality of it. Let's not pretend otherwise.

Having said that, the ancient Chinese master strips away all the familiar trappings of war - the warriors, weapons, forts and tactics - to reveal the essence of conflict and how to win.

His lessons are as valid here and now as they were in an empire a long time ago and far, far away. It simply does not matter how you are fighting, what you are fighting over nor even why you are fighting. If you are forced into conflict with another, the lessons in this book will guarantee victory.

Brute strength, overwhelming force, super weapons, holding the high ground, none of these are required for victory. All that is needed is a leader who can understand and apply the principles of warfare.

Essentially it boils down to three ideas.
1. Know yourself.
2. Know your enemy.
3. Only fight when you can win.

Do this, and you will win competitions, elections, games. Anything that involves conflict. Even wars.

Sun Tzu's elegant language lays bare the principles of warfare, illustrating his lessons with examples from Ancient China. It is a thought-provoking, colourful and valuable book.

War is not really based on honor... or glory, or even whose right. It's all about conditions, who has the advantage and how to dishearten your opponents while making sure your own resources are protected. It tells you what to look for through hundreds of various quotes and snippets of advice. This book was not entirely by Sun Tzu, but a collection of famous tacticians through-out history. Each seem to add another element to the concept of how to win in conflict.

In life, you can see a little of this in each day... but just remember not too get too carried away. After all, even Sun Tzu himself said 'A battle not fought, is a battle won.' For broadening your perspective, I'd suggest adding this book to your collection as well as 'Open Your Mind, Open Your Life: A Little Book of Eastern Wisdom' by Taro Gold.