Favorite examples given in the Art Of War

 The Art of War, top 5 short stories

The Art Of War  is a book by Sun Tzu which was originally written in chinese around 2,500 years ago.  This book is about aspects of war, from the types of environments, generals, and soldiers involved, and the faults and virtues which can determine success in a war. It has thirteen chapters. These are about mainly about laying plans, what is needed to win, foraging, choosing your battles, how to handle the army as a group of people, playing to the weaknesses of the enemy,the army and the psychology of the soldiers, being purely logical,  the movement of the army, the types of terrain, how that terrain may be interpreted, the use of fires, and the use of spies. However, the main thing which is stressed again and again throughout the book is the extreme importance of deception in warfare. In the book  Sun Tzu likes to use stories as examples for his points, this leads to a lot of sneaky stories whose genius may be only matched with that of the home alone kid, and so I listed some of my favorites.  Although there are a lot more stories in the book, I only listed 5 because not all of them are that interesting and some are quite short. However, if you are interested I encourage you to read the book.

1. First we have the campfires whose percentage is about as reliable as my iphone battery.

1. Around 341 BC the Ch’i state was at war against the Wei and two generals, T’ien Ch’i and Sun Pin were pitted against each the general P’ang Chuan in battle, but Sun pin knew P’ang Chuan and the Ch’is reputation. Thus, Sun Pin took the brutal honesty into his own hands and said to T’ien Ch’i, that the Ch’i empire was known for being a coward, but he had a plan to use this for them. First, he had the army put 100,000 fires on the first night and then 50,000 on the second night  and then 20,000 on the third. This caused P’ang Chuan to think that the Ch’i army was a lot less in number and that their numbers had fallen really really quickly, which also made the Ch'i staged retreat more believable. Then, Sun Pin found a narrow spot which he knew his enemies must cross to pursue him. Here, he found a tree which he inscribed that P'ang Chuan must die there and told a bunch of hidden archers to shoot at that spot if they saw a light. Sure enough P’ang Chin saw the tree and brought forth a light to read the inscription, whereupon he was quickly shot and his army taken.

1. The moral is to try to keep the enemy on the move, as it is easier to mess with how they view you. In addition you should leave bait for your enemies to snatch at and keep the enemy on the march until he can fall into your trap. Also, deception is everything in war.

2. I liked this one because of how he spun a bad reputation really to their advantage and because I just thought having them shoot at the light was rather creative.

2. Second we have Chu, ku’ Lang, bluff master

1. Chu, ku’ Lang, had an army occupying a city. When the enemy army arrived, he tricked them by stopping all drumming, lowering the flags, and when the gates were opened for the enemy army, there were only a few people around to intercept them. The other general, suspecting an ambush, turned and fled.

1. The moral if you do not wish to fight, throw something unaccountable to confuse the enemy.

2. I liked this one because it tricked the enemy, it was so simple and not very resource taxing, but was still pretty effective. 

3. Han Hasio, the master of uno reverse and color change

1. First, Hisao Han took some of his cavalry and had them run away and lead the Chao men to abandon their base in pursuit. Once the Chao army had gone enough distance Han Hasio had some of his other men come from the back and switch the flags of the fortress for the red flags of the Han empire. When the Chao forces returned, they saw their flags gone and the color switched. This lead them believe their king was taken, so they devolved into panic. While they were in a panicked chaos, the Han’s were easily able to take the king and attack the panicked troops from both sides. 

2.  The moral plays to the enemy's strengths and makes them think that they are in control, until you trick them or they slip up.

3. Why I liked it: I thought it was a good plan on Hisao Han’s part, and I found it interesting how their ultimate feared action, panic with the king gone, was brought about by their panic that the king was gone.

4. Next we have Ts ‘ao Kuei, probably the type of guy who wouldn’t pick up a phone because he was dancing to the ringtone.

1. Ts ‘ao Kuei who waited for the third roll of enemy drums to attack, and with his advantage won. His reasoning was that “A courageous spirit is everything”. The first roll of drums brings courage, by the second it slips a little and by the third it is pretty much gone. His army however, was at the height of the spirit, and were able to win. 

2. The moral: The spirit of the army is everything, and although an army is made of many men, it is dependent upon each man to have that spirit.

3. I like this one because I thought that this had an interesting view of how human psychology could play in war.

5. Then we have desperation at its finest

1. There was a general who had led his army into desperate land, where their only paths for retreat were narrow, making it so that they could be easily picked off. Thus, their general drove oxen and donkeys into the pathway, so that the soldiers’ only way out was through the approaching army. Seeing only one way out, the desperate army was able to fight their way though.’

2. The moral, do not press a desperate foe. In the book it is repeatedly stated that Sun Tzu likes to leave a little open path for soldiers to believe that they might escape in order to ease their desperation. Also, when occupying land with no decent way of retreat, it is better to fight.

3. Why I liked it: I like an underdog story and I think it is an interesting look into human psychology.

Some general knowledge if you want it

 In this book Sun Tzu mentions 5 main factors which must be considered in war. The first is the moral law, which is the strength of the allegiance of the soldier to their ruler or cause and at what lengths they will go to fight for it. There is heaven which talks about the conditions of the area during battles such as the temperature, time or weather. There is Earth which are surrounding conditions which are more in your control such as distance from the enemy, how much of a threat they are and how well prepared you are. There is the commander which signifies knowledge and wisdom among the battle planners. Then there is method and discipline which signifies how the army is structured, how well are the troops trained and how well supplies can be delivered. He also goes into how waging war is expensive and the longer a war is waged the greater toll it takes on a country. Although haste should not be the only thing that should be strived for, prolonged warfare also allows soldiers' ardor to dwindle and the weapons will get old, putting the army in a weaker state which increases vulnerability. Thus, in order to increase spirit among soldiers and stave off impoverishment of the citizens, foraging on and pilfering of enemy lands are highly recommended. The ideal in most wars is to take over the country without any damage to it, like it is better to capture an army rather than kill them. Thus, it is the most ideal to disrupt the enemy plans, then to fight in a field, and lastly to attack a city. All battles should be chosen wisely because not only does it damage possible conquered land, it may also take too much material, effort and time to secure a place with little reward. However, when fighting, it is best to surround the enemy if the number of your soldiers is 10 to 1, to attack if 5 to 1, to split your army and have half attack the front and half attack the back, if 2 to 1, to possibly attack if 1 to 1,  and if unequal, to try to avoid or run from the enemy.

What I thought of the book overall:

  Overall, I thought the book had some pretty interesting and smart content. I found the  especially impressive seeing as it was created around 2,500 years ago. However, as someone who is used to a certain level of suspense and plot given to them by fiction books, reading the book could get a little boring sometimes. Although, I found it really nice how Sun Tzu included short stories in the book to highlight his point because I feel like it was able to break up the information a little more, provide a better understanding of some of his points and could be rather fun and interesting to read. When reading, I thought one of the most interesting aspects of this book was the small little tips he gave that the unaware eye probably would not notice other wise. For example, frequent awards to men can be a sign that the army is running out of resources because a general will probably try to offer rewards to keep the men from mutiny. Another example is that if birds gather on a spot in the camp, it is unoccupied. Finally, although I did find it boring sometimes, and I am for the most part not a huge fan of non-fiction books, I would have to give this book ten out of ten stars. This is because, if  not for the interesting facts, for the genius of the advice, the ploys, and really the general knowledge within this book.

-Annie :)