The Art of War: Sun Tzu’s Military Principles for All Times

Sun Tzu was among of the famous and finest generals on China, because his writing is highly influential on China, over the years he develop the foundation of Eastern military thought and became the ultimate strategist. Sun Tzu considered war as an art, but why should we considered war as an art and do it artistically? It’s because war could result between life or death therefore a person should do it with the mastery of skills thus to gain victory at the end. But why does a man need to learn the principles of war? Because for Sun Tzu “war is a matter of vital to the state. It is mandatory that it would be thoroughly studied”. It only means that war is inevitable, no one can avoid war, so when the time comes that there was war, a person will be ready. It is important to know the treatise, the principle or even the strategies in order for a person to at least save his life, this skills are significant so as the time comes he will be ready. Sun Tzu also gave importance on the knowledge of a person on war, because in this way if he is knowledgeable on it he will be more cautious or careful to fight. As Sun Tsu is considered one of the most finest military strategies, he is strict on orders and regulations to his men, for him it is the burden of the commander if his men weren’t effective.

As an evidence, according to a famous story about Sun Tzu the story of the concubine, Sun Tzu was challenge by a king to demonstrate his techniques and tactics, the king entrusted his concubines to Sun Tzu and has challenged him to apply his tactics and training of a soldier to the concubines, as what expected given that the concubines were untrained they perform poorly and they didn’t get serious on those matters, so Sun Tzu think of a tactic he beheaded the King’s favorite concubine, then at that moment the other concubines realize that Sun Tzu was serious on his directives so they execute his orders clearly and smoothly without any hesitations, this story may become tragic but it shows how good execution may become a key for good strategy. You can’t put good strategy on top of bad execution and expect the strategy to work, on creating better execution it’s about working with people, because one cannot achieve anything without his peers, what I mean is even though you make a good strategy but the people who are performing it are not harmonious or are mediocre the execution will not be good and so it will affect the main strategy.

The Art of War of Sun Tzu was held as the most authoritative work on war by generals on both Eastern and Western for over two thousand five hundred years. The foundation of this book is built by people-management principles and not only about technical skills which even though is important is not the primary goal of the work, we can see different principles on this work that allows individual on accomplishing their goals and objectives. It also provides collection of different aspects of warfare that are inspired with Taoist philosophy, in employing his strategies he also employs Dao, Yin Yang and Wei Wu Wei because on his first principle on war as an Deception, deception is one example of the Yin yang and Wu Wei principle. We can see different war concepts that success because of Taoist principle, it also can be a material for an ambitious leader on his educative literature.

In Sun Tzu’s Art of War there are chapters that lay down his strategies. First is the Art of Deception which refers to intelligence as a way to win a war, how victory can be acquired in the most easiest and fastest way, examples are when they are in unity divide them, when they are unprepared attack them, by this, one should think of a strategical ways which the enemy cannot expect. He propose five constant factors on winning a war. The moral influence, weather, terrain, commander and the doctrine these five factors must be known to the commanders in order for them to win, if a commander are not familiar with this five factors there are big possibility of losing a war. It is important to know the art of deception to have the advantages that are needed and to execute the unexpected strategies.

Another is Victory as the object of War, which they aspire victory on fighting a war, one example is using time in your own advantage which aim for the fastest way to gain victory. Because if one war was delayed it affects the warriors not only physically but morally so it will come to the advantage of the other party. Next is the Attack by Strategy, according to Sun Tzu the highest skill in war is to beat the enemy without a fight with this we can integrate the principle of Wei Wu Wei, which means it is better to prevent war than cure it by this one should destroy their plans and strategies for them to not execute it, another strategy is if outnumbered retreat is another clever plan.

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Another is they treat there captured enemies well because it can be their alliance in the future, also there aim is to overthrow a state without operations. Another important principle of Art of War is the weakness and strength in battle front, where a warrior made himself invincible and waited for the moment that his enemies was defenseless. As what Michaelson said invincibility lies in the defense, the possibility of victory in the attack. One of the effective strategy is in defense, those warriors that are skilled in defense are good on making ways in order to protect themselves and gain complete victory.

The Art of Fighting Well is also one of his principles, it says that in a War the general is the commanding officer, but some of this command comes from the sovereign. But Sun Tzu claims that there are commands of the sovereign that should not be obeyed because given that the General was the one who are in charge in war he is the one who is more knowledgeable about the strategy and tactics that should employ on the troops. The troops are primarily depending on the general’s viewpoint so the general must be skillful not only for him to execute the war smoothly but also to boost the morale of his troops, it is important to boost the morale of a warrior for him to be at his very best condition on fighting his enemies. Also in order for the general to properly employ troops he must know the advantages of his men that embedded with his tactics, all that were mention was important because all of his judgement is vital for the victory of a war one failure on his decision might result to ruin and the loss in a war.

Next is On the March, which means that the general should be responsible on assessing or reading the strategic concept of the enemy from the start in order for them to not fall on the enemy’s techniques and strategies. By this, they should first have an Estimation on the Situation which means assessing enemies power and situation is important and the general who underestimate his enemies will be defeated on a battle. One should remember that number in war is not that great advantage when an army doesn’t assess the enemies strength and weaknesses, generating a fair and harmonious relationship is also vital for the troops to move in harmonious manner and to obey their leader without any hesitance, its about creating relationship with your men, and also for them to be attached with their commander, because if a person are being commanded with a person that is being attached to them it is not hard for them to obey those commandments and rules but we must remember that it should be enforced with discipline for it to become effective, the effective implementation and execution of commands reflects a great and harmonious relationship between a warrior and his commander.

The Art of Knowing the Terrain is one of the great advantage of an Army in a battlefield, for Ames Accessible terrain is a kind of terrain that anyone can access , the army are battling to be at the high ground and on the sunny side of the terrain because it is more advantageous to them to fight on their enemies and it can establish convenient supply lines, another kind is entangling which it’s the terrain that has easy access when you enter but hampers when you return, the general should know the situation of his men, it is necessary for the general to make an assessment on what is happening on the ground, he needs to calculate the distances that leads to the terrain. Even though there are some time that the General resorting to retreating techniques to save his people, he will not be treated as a coward but as a jewel of the state because he protect not only the interest of the state but also the people. If a commander treat his men as a true son his men will all stand him unto death but if he cherish them cannot command them it is in no use because they cannot perform their responsibilities.

Lastly, The Art of Spying, which presented the power of military intelligence that serves as a key player on strategizing against the enemies, and Sun Tzu introduces the idea of “foreknowledge” which means knowing ahead it can be obtain by men that are knowledgeable about the enemies situation. There are five types of spies: the natives which are get on the country of the enemy, the internal which are enemies official, the doomed which is the spies that came from own people but tend to disseminate wrong information to report to their enemies, the converted which is enemy spies that they employ, if all of this spies are in their mission and there’s no one who know their mission, there are successful with their responsibility and they are hailed as a treasure of a sovereign.