Recently, I have re-studied the art of war developed by Sun Zi thousand of years ago. I find new truths in the truths I have discovered earlier and am compelled to share it with you. As usual, the sharing doesn't make me lose anything but only a deeper understanding of what have been understood earlier.
I am not commenting on the whole 13 chapters but the important insights I have derived from these chapters. I have also included some Chinese text in its original form to make it more authentic and also for cross reference in case you want to read further by yourself.
1. Quantitative advantage. More is always stronger than less (故用兵之法，十則圍之，五則攻之，倍則分之，敵則能戰之，少則能 逃之，不若則能避之。故小敵之堅，大敵之擒也) - in a war, the advantages of having more people in a war outweigh the opponent with fewer people.However, this quantitative advantage is only applicable during the battle engagement i.e. if you have 10 people and your opponent has 5, but you only send 2 while your opponent sends 5, it's your opponent that has the quantitative advantage and not you. Have you seen how a big size guy tears a telephone directory in a circus? Actually he is tearing the phonebook bit by bit and not all at once. By doing so, he has quantitative advantage over the phone book.
2.In any battles, it is not advisable to drag the duration of the battle (故兵貴勝，不貴久) - waging a war takes a lot of resources. So, if it drags, your quantitative advantage will be affected.
3.We can only know how to win but cannot realize it until your opponent gives you the opportunity (故曰：勝可知 ，而不可為) - it's just like a badminton or tennis game. We cannot plan our attack and defence plans way in advance. It is during the game that your opponents open up new opportunities due to their weakness and you convert those opportunities into success.
4.Choose your battle (是故勝兵先勝而後求戰，敗兵先戰而後求勝) - according to the Chinese original text, those great generals know they can win, that's why they fight while the inexperienced generals fight first and then try to win. In our normal life, there are so many wars we can wage such as animal rights, politics, public safety, office politics...the challenges are countless but our resources are limited. What can we do? We choose our battles that ensure we can win.
5.Just a simple attack and defense sequence can create an infinite combination (聲不過五，五聲之變， 不可勝聽也) - in the Chinese text, there are only 5 music notes but with it, an infinite combination of sounds to form music. I think it's self-explanatory.
6. In a battle, the formation is more important than the individual's strength (故善戰者，求之于勢，不責于人) - this is to say that teamwork is more important and stronger than individual's capability.
7.For your team to die for you, you must first capture their heart (卒未親附而罰之，則不服，不服則難用也) - if you try to punish your team members before you capture their hearts, it will be hard to get their cooperation.
8.If your team is too close to you, punishment becomes useless and hence hard to use such people(卒已親附而罰不行，則不 可用也) - this is the opposite of point 7. No matter how close we are with our team, it must be clear that they still respect us as their leaders and not buddies
Heavy stuff? Probably. That's why I split into 2 parts....coming soon!
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