Sun Tzu was a Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher who is reputed to have been born around 544 BCE and died around 496 BCE.
He is traditionally credited as the author of an extremely influential ancient Chinese books on military strategy called The Art of War. He was a legendary historical figure with an enormous impact on Chinese and Asian history and culture.
Sun Tzu’s understanding of traditional warfare has survived to this day.
But the circumstances of modern asymmetrical warfare, fought between sovereign states and rebel or terrorist groups, have raised doubts about many of his strategies.
Outside of the battlefield, his book has become increasingly popular among political leaders and business managers. Its title,The Art of War, is misleading, as the concepts it espouse address a wide variety of strategies, for example in public administration and planning.
It’s true that the text outlines theories of battle, but it also advocates diplomacy and cultivating relationships with other nations as essential to the health of a state.
Browse through our selection of Sun Tzu’s ideas and judge for yourself the non-military applications:
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.
To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.
Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.
The last saying of Sun Tzu on our list is probably the most meaningful.
Do you agree with his view of protracted warfare? Do you think that can be extended to any warfare?
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