Sun Tzu and the Art of War

Throughout the ages of history, there were many wars that were fought. For every victory and defeat, what was it that really determined the outcome of the war? Which army leader had the better or worse battle plan? With the plan they had, did it increase their chances of victory? Were there key factors in an army leader’s plan that lead to their defeat? Or, was the best decision made to completely avoid war? For a lot of the wars that took place and the ones that were avoided many years ago, the mystery still remains unsolved on how and why certain army leaders were victorious or gained a certain advantage because of the choices they made. On the other hand, it is also unknown on how or why an army leader failed to a certain extent and what could have been done beforehand to prevent defeat. However, there was specific information on the subject of warfare documented by one of the greatest military strategists during the Era of Warring States, Sun Tzu, in his writing of The Art of War. Here are some key details of his documentation involving lessons learned and thorough observations about warfare, involving the forces of nature used as an advantage to potentially increase the chances of success or a disadvantage that would potentially lead to failure in a war.

One of the significant lessons on warfare and leadership put forth by Sun Tzu was having the ability to act in dynamic opposites as a tactical advantage when planning an attack. He had stated that “All warfare is based on deception” (Giles). If one’s own army is strong, one must command his soldiers to appear weak. It was of significant importance to create an illusion or a false image, like how soldiers would act weary or injured for the enemy to believe they hav...

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... effective in the battles that were fought, which took into consideration that not every battle is won. One can recognize that Sun Tzu was an incredibly intelligent leader and also an influential philosopher who aimed to master his ability of approaching war strategically and successfully. It was quite evident that he took Daoism into consideration on how the forces of nature would have a direct impact in determining the outcome of war. His comparisons involved a great deal of Yin and Yang, specifically motivated by the balance of strength and weakness. Lastly, one of the most important aspects of warfare was determining that sometimes the best victory was the battle that was never fought, in order to live and fight another day.

Works Cited

Giles, Lionel. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. 1994-2009. http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html (accessed December 2, 2013).