Customer Reviews

The Art of War

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The Art of War was the speech of Chinese famous strategist Sun Zi (or Sun Tzu), who lived about 2500 years ago. The Art of War represents the earliest existing codification of military and political strategy, and is probably the most widely-read work on strategy in history. Sun Tzu's book is widely studied by the business and military communities today. At least seven different translations appeared in the last two decades alone, including an 'official' copy of the version used by the People's Liberation Army complete with Marxist dialectic and critique. Although The Art of War is about War, Sun Zi strongly advocates that the best way is 'win without a war.' 'The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.' (Ch. 3). If you know both you and your enemy, you can win all the war; if you only know one side, you only have 50% to win the war; if you know nothing of both sides, you will lose all the war. In the above speech, we can find how important that the information is. In management science, a model built on little information seldom can solve the problem in our real life. So whenever we plan to do a project, the first thing first is to get information (as complete as possible). To get vital information, Sun Zi recommended five usages of spying (Ch. 13). Knowledge about your commentators, saves you money, Spying can save thousands of soldiers' lives and the wealth of the nation. Information is so important, a wise general must know how to hide its own information. Sun Zi says that all warfare is based on deception (Ch. 1). When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. In management science, we must be very careful to collect information and analyze what information is true and what is not. We also must know how to protect our own information. The Art of War has 13 chapters on 28 pages. Some chapters have been selected as texts in Chinese middle school. A lot of Chinese know the following story, but it cannot be found in The Art of War. General Tianji of Qi kingdom liked horse racing. One day, the king of Qi wanted to complete his horses with Tianji's. They divided their horses into three classes. Because Tianji's each class horse was weaker than the same class horse of the king's, Tianji lost all three classes competition. Tianji was downhearted and left. Tianji's friend Sunzi saw this and told Tianji that he can help Tianji to win the race. 'I have no better horse,' Tianji says. 'No, you don't need.' Sunzi said. 'You can use your third class horse to complete with king's first class horse; use your first to compete with his second; use your second to compete with his third.' Tanji did as what he had been told and won the racing.

Sun Tzu's "Art of War" audiobook translated by Ralph D. Sawyer and performed by Joe Mantegna is an interesting little trip.

"Art of War" is broken up into "Lessons" which, at first blush, appear to be nothing more that contrite truisms. This is only amplified by Mantegna's deliberate and articulating cadence. However, it is both unfair and unwise to characterize the "Lessons" as contrite or as a collection of truisms. Calling the lessons contrite diminishes the fact that there should be a requisite amount of thought given to the words. The lessons are wisdom that ought not to be devoured but rather to be savored. For his part, Mantegna's delivery accentuates the fact that the lessons are to be savored as he delivers the lines of the lesson at a deliberate and steady pace. The "lessons" are also not truisms. Yes, it is true that the "lessons" are easy to read but history teaches us that the wisdom of the lessons are hard to master.

There is also some background historical material written by Ralph D. Sawyer following Mantegna's rendering of the "lessons." The historical materials are excellent but are unfortunate based upon their brevity.

The Art of War is what it is and there are many different translations and commentaries. The question is what this version adds to the work. Ralph D. Sawyer is a "Chinese warfare scholar" and it shows. His commentary is an essay on the miliatry environment in which Sun Tzu's theories were created. There is lots of information on how particular military campaigns of the time may have influenced Sun Tzu's thinking and how Sun Tzu's work may have influenced particular military campaigns. On the surface this sounds interesting. The problem is that it reads like a high-school history text. Lots of armies, regions, and leader names that are unfamiliar and similar. Lots of accounts of the numbers of soldiers in the armies, the styles of deployement, etc. If you have an interest in Chinese military history the commentary may be very interesting - for me, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. However, there are only a couple audio versions available, so this is still worth it if you want to "hear" Sun Tzu's work. But I recommend you turn it off when the commentary begins. Your milage may vary.

The Warring States period Warring States Period 475-221 BCE is a history of constant warfare, of alliances and counter-alliances, and of treaties made and broken. The nature of warfare evolved during the period. During the Warring States period, political stability was impossible to gain by adventurous military action. With the advent of swelling ranks of soldiers, protracted sieges, and an ever increasing drain on state treasuries, warfare became a serious matter for study.

Thus, the opening remark of "The Art Of War" states--without exaggeration--war had become the most serious business of the state, the key to survival or ruin. The author of this and other pithy aphorisms on how to successfully fight a war was Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu scholars place his writing "The Art of War" in the Warring States Period, based on the descriptions of warfare in the text. The book has received great exposure in the west starting in the eighteenth century after being translated by a French missionary. It has been reported that Napoleon studied the text and effectively put many of its teachings to good use. For the past 2,000 years, it has been the most important military treatise in all of Asia, even known by name with the common people. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese military figures have studied it and employed its concepts to good effect. This is especially evident in the military tactics of 20th century revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh.

The book is comprised of 13 chapters. The thesis of Sun's work is one should employ an army after a thorough analysis mandated by careful planning and the formulation of an overall strategy before embarking on a campaign. Sun emphasizes rational self-control, influenced by Daoist teachings throughout the book.

Chap 1-Laying Plans
18. All warfare is based on deception. 19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Chap 6-Weak Points And Strong
8. Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

The best translation is the Samuel B. Griffith edition

Very philosophical and full of wisdom that can be applied in many areas on life. Good common sense truisms.

Joe Mantegna is great. I think that the audio works better than the actual book for this piece of art because of him. If you mix both the audio and the book probably it will give you a better understanding of Sun Tzu's teachings. I may try it myself.

Individuals who find themselves uncomfortable with planning and strategizing - will find something engaging in this CD adaptation.

After hearing Tony Soprano (HBO "The Sopranos") opine about this book, I had to get a copy myself. Difficult to understand at first, but you will not be disappointed.

This is a legendary book and has gotten a lot of play these days, from Wall St. to Hollywood types--including such notables as writer James Clavell. While I respect Clavell and am very familiar with the book, frankly, I don't see what all the commotion is about. The supposedly profound psychological principles that can be used to outwit your opponent, among many other strategems discussed, I found to be pretty elementary and not particularly astute. Perhaps for it's time this qualified as state of the art, but not anymore. Most of them are, or should be, pretty obvious.

Sun Tzu's observations about military strategy also seemed of limited applicability today since they pertain to ground wars with very primitive weapons. For example, his point that one should obtain the superior vantage point and position from which to attack, while valid, would be understood today by the greenest officer just out of his military strategy and tactics course at the academy. There are some occasionally useful tidbits here, but overall, I suspect anybody trying to use these tactics in exactly the same way today in a confrontation with modern ground weapons wouldn't be a happy camper.

To give just a couple of examples of this, in John Keegan's excellent book on the history of warfare, The Face of Battle, he points out that in the Battle of the Somme in World War I artillery accounted for 90 per cent of the casualties--not the infantry. The importance of artillery has continued to this day, something which didn't exist at all in Sun Tzu's time.

As Keegan has pointed out, the first "modern" battle in the sense that it was the artillery that carried the day was in the 12th century Battle of Agincourt, where the much smaller English army using longbowmen decisively defeated a much larger French army, inflicting heavy casualties on the other side.

Secondly, the greater speed, destructive power, and maneuverability of modern armies, especially in the case of mechanized armor, dictates that the overall strategy and details of ground engagements will be substantially different from those in Sun Tzu's time. (I could cite other examples, since we haven't even considered the advent of air power, but I'll leave it at that).

The best way to appreciate this book is in the context of a classic that represented a high point in the military thinking of its time, but which has since been superceded. Basically this amounts to saying the work has historical value, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't go too much further than that.

Also (assuming the story is true), anybody who would behead two of the Emperor's most beautiful concubines because they giggled during a marching exercise for the Emperor is a real jerk and should apply for membership in the Nazi Hall of Fame (more like Hall of Shame).

Finally, (and as seen from many of the reviews here) westerners continually misinterpret Oriental classics like this and apply them to situations where they are not applicable (and where even the Chinese wouldn't think of using them). This is a book about war, and has very little relevance to business.

You'd think people would have taken a clue from the title, "The Art of War." It's doesn't say, "The Art of Business." What part of the title didn't they understand?

For example, another reviewer very perceptively pointed out what is probably the worst problem with interpreting Sun Tzu's work in the light of business strategy, which is that the best strategy in business is a win/win situation: if I win and you lose, you will never do business with me again. I would certainly agree with this and again would reiterate that this is a book about war, not about business strategy.

In fairness, I would sum up by saying Sun Tzu's book represents an important historical contribution, but it has been over- hyped far beyond its real worth to the modern reader, and inappropriately applied in other areas, such as business, where it has very little, if any, real relevance or value. (However, I give the book 3 stars for effort, since anybody who was as busy as Sun Tzu was who also managed to ride a book deserves some respect).

(Brief postscript: Perhaps I would find B. H. Liddell-Hart's or Camille Clauswitz's books more profound as classics on war, as I did Kegan's books? I may try reading them and see if I find them more interesting and valuable than the Art of War. I have read articles about both books over the years, and they do seem more impressive, but I haven't actually read the originals yet. If I do, I will post a review on them on Amazon, as with the Sun Tzu book. Hopefully, I will have something more positive to say on these two also venerable classics.)

I bought this book as a gift and the reader loved it.

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