ARTelevision

XII. THE ATTACK BY FIRE


1. Sun Tzu said: There are five ways of attacking
with fire. The first is to burn soldiers in their camp;
the second is to burn stores; the third is to burn
baggage trains; the fourth is to burn arsenals and magazines;
the fifth is to hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy.

2. In order to carry out an attack, we must have
means available. The material for raising fire should
always be kept in readiness.

3. There is a proper season for making attacks with fire,
and special days for starting a conflagration.

4. The proper season is when the weather is very dry;
the special days are those when the moon is in the
constellations of the Sieve, the Wall, the Wing
or the Cross-bar; for these four are all days of rising wind.

5. In attacking with fire, one should be prepared
to meet five possible developments:

6. (1) When fire breaks out inside to enemy's camp,
respond at once with an attack from without.

7. (2) If there is an outbreak of fire, but the enemy's
soldiers remain quiet, bide your time and do not attack.

8. (3) When the force of the flames has reached its height,
follow it up with an attack, if that is practicable;
if not, stay where you are.

9. (4) If it is possible to make an assault with fire
from without, do not wait for it to break out within,
but deliver your attack at a favorable moment.

10. (5) When you start a fire, be to windward of it.
Do not attack from the leeward.

11. A wind that rises in the daytime lasts long,
but a night breeze soon falls.

12. In every army, the five developments connected with
fire must be known, the movements of the stars calculated,
and a watch kept for the proper days.

13. Hence those who use fire as an aid to the attack show intelligence;
those who use water as an aid to the attack gain an accession of strength.

14. By means of water, an enemy may be intercepted,
but not robbed of all his belongings.

15. Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his
battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating
the spirit of enterprise; for the result is waste of time
and general stagnation.

16. Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his
plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.

17. Move not unless you see an advantage; use not
your troops unless there is something to be gained;
fight not unless the position is critical.

18. No ruler should put troops into the field merely
to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight
a battle simply out of pique.

19. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move;
if not, stay where you are.

20. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may
be succeeded by content.

21. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can
never come again into being; nor can the dead ever
be brought back to life.

22. Hence the enlightened ruler is heedful,
and the good general full of caution. This is the way
to keep a country at peace and an army intact.
..............................................................................

After the initial discussions of the specifics of fire and water, the final few statements here are reminders of the correct predispositions one needs for warfare.

The specifics of modes of attack are metaphors for knowing one's weaponry, calculating the effects of same, and all the various implications of one's arsenal.

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oberon

I've always enjoyed the basics of "The Art of War" but have never read the entire treatise. I wish I'd thought of it last weekend when I had free time.

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"There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb

ARTelevision

XIII. THE USE OF SPIES


1. Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand
men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss
on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.
The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces
of silver. There will be commotion at home and abroad,
and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.
As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded
in their labor.

2. Hostile armies may face each other for years,
striving for the victory which is decided in a single day.
This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's
condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred
ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height
of inhumanity.

3. One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present
help to his sovereign, no master of victory.

4. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good
general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond
the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits;
it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,
nor by any deductive calculation.

6. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only
be obtained from other men.

7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes:
(1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies;
(4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.

8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work,
none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine
manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's
most precious faculty.

9. Having local spies means employing the services
of the inhabitants of a district.

10. Having inward spies, making use of officials
of the enemy.

11. Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's
spies and using them for our own purposes.

12. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly
for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know
of them and report them to the enemy.

13. Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring
back news from the enemy's camp.

14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are
more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies.
None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other
business should greater secrecy be preserved.

15. Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain
intuitive sagacity.

16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence
and straightforwardness.

17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make
certain of the truth of their reports.

18. Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every
kind of business.

19. If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy
before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together
with the man to whom the secret was told.

20. Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm
a city, or to assassinate an individual, it is always
necessary to begin by finding out the names of the attendants,
the aides-de-camp, and door-keepers and sentries of the general
in command. Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.

21. The enemy's spies who have come to spy on us
must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and
comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted
spies and available for our service.

22. It is through the information brought by the
converted spy that we are able to acquire and employ
local and inward spies.

23. It is owing to his information, again, that we can
cause the doomed spy to carry false tidings to the enemy.

24. Lastly, it is by his information that the surviving
spy can be used on appointed occasions.

25. The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties
is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only
be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy.
Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated
with the utmost liberality.

26. Of old, the rise of the Yin dynasty was due to I
Chih who had served under the Hsia. Likewise, the rise
of the Chou dynasty was due to Lu Ya who had served
under the Yin.

27. Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the
wise general who will use the highest intelligence of
the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve
great results. Spies are a most important element in war,
because on them depends an army's ability to move.

…………………………………………………………………..

Comments:
This is the 13th and final chapter of Sun Tzu’s amazingly cogent and prescient treatise. It is primarily a treatise on existential human psychology. Warfare is a metaphor for the evolutionary struggle to survive and prosper pitched squarely on our shoulders by Nature herself. There is no alternative to warfare on this earth. The only choice we have is whether to wage it well or to wage it lazily and dispiritedly.

A treatise on intelligence in matters military end fittingly with a chapter on military intelligence. The beginning of this chapter is pure enlightened pragmatic existentialism. In it is the only intelligent basis for ethics man can devise in the face of the natural struggle to survive. Throughout, we see Sun Tzu develop, realistically, tenets of humane treatment when called for and swift and decisive action as necessary.

Given the facts of life, to live one’s life as a warrior is the only smart choice one can make.

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ARTelevision

Update...

Coast to Coast AM (coasttocoastam.com) broadcast a discussion of Sun Tzu's masterwork on January 19th of this year. For those of you who subscribe to the site, there is a downloadable mp3 of the show. Here's an overview:

"
Sun Tzu & Strategy
America’s leading authority on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Gary Gagliardi, shared the ancient Chinese thinker's principles of strategy and how they can apply to many aspects of a person's life today. Sun Tzu wrote his text 2,500 years ago as a reaction against the more passive Confucianism and Taoism, Gagliardi explained, yet many of his ideas embraced avoiding outright conflict in order to achieve maximum success.

For instance, his use of the word "battle" translated as "meeting a challenge," and didn't necessarily indicate fighting. And holding the right information was more valuable than force, Sun Tzu wrote.

In using these techniques as a way of life, Gagliardi said they could be broken down into knowledge, vision, action and positioning. One could use information to make small rather than big steps in a new direction. And from this new position a person could take advantage of opportunities that arise. The use of surprise is also useful, he said, as it creates momentum towards a desired goal.
"

Gagliardi's work can be accessed here:

http://www.garygagliardi.com/

...
Always highly relevant, The Art of War, is a book I never stop reading.

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ARTelevision

Additional resources are available here:

http://www.booksonstrategy.com/

This site is replete with valuable information. If I had to recommend only one book to folks, it would be Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Do yourself a life-changing favor and study the text.

For those who are new to this thread, the entire text is at the top.

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kitsune

war is only necessary because of our shortsightnedness. nothing that anyone has been killed over was worth killing over. people are just too angsty because they don't kill thier own food anymore.

rat

I think the fundamental flaw in the initial post is the "there is always a winner, there is always a loser." Taking things to the realm of business (the most competitive non-violent arena of head-to-head matchups), more companies have found that having an adversarial relationship with those with whom they do business is the surest way to fail. Those who are willing to embrace the principles of Carnegie, Stew Leonard, Carl Sewell and others, find that the more they have a personal partnership with their suppliers and customers, the more they succeed.

This is not to say that they do not compete for market share/dominance, but viewing every potential relationship as a "challenge" or "contest" is something the corporate cultures of these firms actively discourages. While at times the companies will incur mild financial losses, they come out ahead in the long run with repeat customers. While at times the customers pay more than they would at a competitor's store, they come out ahead with superior service and effective results.

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Nisses

/me looks at Kitsune, then turns him around and gestures... I think you missed, the point, it's over there!
(aka, read ART's posts again.)

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Moderation should be moderately moderated.

ARTelevision

I see the field of human action in the same way I see animal behavior in the natural environment - as essentially Darwinian relationships.

There are many facets to the denotations, connotations, and shades of meaning of the original ancient Chinese text. I do not think it is a stretch to read Sun Tzu metaphorically. As such, I don't stick to firm definitions of words that exist as mere translations of the original.

There are books that offer the original Chinese on alternate pages for comparison with current translations. A wealth of supplementary information - much of it free - is available here:

http://www.booksonstrategy.com

Thanks for your comments. Strategy is a way to think about one's behavior with intentionality as its basis.

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BigBen

My favorite part was when Sun Tzu rounded up the guard and told them to march. They laughed at him. He then cut the leaders throat, and promoted the next in line. He then told them to march, and they fucking marched.

Never underestimate your enemy. You are dead if you do. Guaranteed.

Never underestimate the power of discipline. A disciplined army can kill an army 10 times its size. Why? DISCIPLINE. No other reason. Unfortunately discipline is hard to get, easy to lose, expensive and painful.

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3.141592654
Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.

innovis

What is classically recognized as the best translation of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu? I've been wanting to buy a print copy.

1010011010

Lionel Giles (1910)

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Simple Machines in Higher Dimensions

SERPENT7

the most insightful thing Sun Tzu said:

"power is derived not from striking your enemy hard or often, but in striking true."

ARTelevision

innovis,
The first five translators listed at the bottom of this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

are considered authoritative. They all differ however. And their differences are disputed by fans of each version.

I actually like Gary Gagliardi's most recent translation(s). They include the original Chinese characters allowing one to catch a glimpse of the concepts that animate all translations.

Gagliardi discusses this here:

http://www.booksonstrategy.com/art_of_war_chinese.htm

I also have come to appreciate the rest of his work.

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I'm bumping this thread because I have a current use for it and it's a good repository of comments and responses.

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j0hnb

I've been planning on reading the art of war for some time now. I read Machiavelli's The Prince which is also a great read. There are a ton of tactics and such that can be taken from it. I'll get around to reading the art of war soon enough.

Nimetic

I read this book about 12yrs back, and was completely underwhelmed by it.

A lot of stuff in it is highly specific (in my view) - and other areas seem commonsense. I'm amazed that a rash of translations have just come out.. I suppose it is akin to the "book of five rings" (Musashi) was in the 80s.

The Chinese though, also have something called the 36 strategies (from memory). These look a lot more general.. and useful.

meepa

Reading the first chapter, I notice he doesn't mention luck. That's odd. And don't tell me that the perfect leader will have a contingency plan for every single possible scenario. Luck often plays a huge role in war.

Nimetic

At the risk of being somewhat obnoxious, I'm posting my interpretations of some of Sun's ideas - highlighting how they can be used in the modern business environment.



Now offense meant really. I was just a little interested in Sun Tzu recently, having rechecked his works after the PMI (the "Project Management Institute") took yet another imaginative step and offered me a place at an Art of War seminar... for a price.

Obviously.. these are random selected bits. I type too much already...





SUN TZU

After crossing a river you should get far away from it

OFFICE INTERPRETATION

Don't spent too long in the toilet

SUN TZU

"When, in consequence of heavy rains up-country, a river which you wish to ford is swollen and flecked with foam, you must wait until it subsides"

OFFICE INTERPRETATION

If is raining so hard that the gutters of the roads are full of water and difficult to cross, eat your lunch in the office and do your banking later.

SUN TZU

When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food.

OFFICE INTERPRETATION

Have sweets at your desk, and muffins in your meetings.

SUN TZU

If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.

OFFICE INTERPRETATION

If it is to your advantage. Photocopy your bottom. If not, stay where you are.

j0hnb

hehe. I love your interpretation.