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Abstract

Sun Tzu's the art of war is considered to be the best text on strategy. This is how it is viewed by western society but it is also a philosophical and spiritual text. To fully comprehend this text we must understand the symbolism, philosophies and the Chinese society of that time. Many people read The Art of War without taking these factors into consideration missing the ethical, social, political lessons this text can bring to western business. Studying the history that led up to the Text can give us a greater appreciation of Chinese thought while aiding our own culture.

Introduction

When deciding the topic for this paper I thought that Sun Tzu's The Art of War would be an easy and short topic to present. In delving into the background and symbolism of the text I found that I had to some how not only describe a text but the culture if I was to put the text into context. No paper can fully or fairly represent any culture. This paper is meant to be a roller coaster ride through some of many areas relating to Sun Tzu's The Art of War. I hope that the glances and images of this paper and the symbolism behind them will encourage you to look deeper into this text and the culture that created it. I hope that this paper gives the text and the Chinese people the respect and honor they deserve.

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is considered to be the best text on strategy. This work was not the product of a University or a western corporation but an ancient Chinese general around the third to fourth century BC (Hanzhang: 1993). This text contains only 5600 words/ideograms yet when the context and symbolism are understood this text becomes a very complex work of strategy and philosophy.

History

To gauge an understanding of the world at the time this text was written we must compare Chinese society to others around the world. Buddha was on his pilgrimage through India, Socrates and other philosophers were establishing western philosophy as we know now it, and the Torah had just been established as the moral code of the Jewish people (Wing: 1989).

China at this time was a microcosm of the present day world. China was made up of warring states. Each state similar to a modern country warring over land and politics. This led to a demand for freelance military leaders, people who would go from leader to leader selling them their military skills. This is similar to a modern consultant but this was 2300-2500 years ago.

Title

The title given to the text has been translated into English as the Art of War. Looking at the individual words or ideograms we see a much more complicated meaning of the original title then the English title suggests. The ideogram for war as it is used in the title can also be translated into the English words: Combat, Maneuver, Weapon, Conflict and so on (Hanzhang: 1993). The meaning of conflict from the western viewpoint has negative connotations. Conflict can also though be a good thing. If I have the choice of going to a party or out with some friends then I am in conflict. Conflict in ideas' leads to growth and change. We in the West tend to separate the negative and positive types of conflict into two meanings on subjective criteria based on the emotive social misconception that conflict is bad therefor good conflict is something else. Both types of conflict negative and positive are represented in the Chinese definition of conflict as defined in the text title, leading to different interpretations than one in the West would initially expect.

This difference in the Western definition of conflict can be summed up by Cognitive Dissonance Theory, which states that when we are psychologically aroused by a new perception that conflicts with previously stored ideas or does not fit into a preexisting "World View" then the individual will alter their perception and sometimes alter it to incorporate the new perception into their store of knowledge (Earhart, 1982).

This process of comparing previously stored knowledge is influenced by our culture (Beamer & Varner; 1995). The process of socialisation where parents and society instill cultural values to their children is how a culture continues through the generations but what if these values or knowledge are a matter of perspective? If you are raised to believe a pink pixie created the world and everyone in the culture agrees, chances are that without outside influence you will believe the same thing.

Also the different connotations of words can lead to break away words with different connotations and meanings. In the case of conflict in the West we may say "I am making a decision, I'm not in conflict" but they are the same thing. When dealing with another culture we have to be aware of the full extent and meaning of the word and not just its translation (Beamer & Varner; 1995).

Spiritual values can also be incorporated into the translated word. Chinese ideograms are often made up of sub components e.g. the ideogram for to listen includes the ideograms for hearing and also heart. In the Western translation this aspect of heart has been left out. This leads to the argument translation verses transliteration. This is what has happened with The Art of War as with all East- West translation to varying degrees.

The Tao

The Tao is the most common symbol used in the Art of War and is the most difficult to understand. The term Tao as it is represented in the Tao Te Ching has been translated as "way" or "the way" (Cleary: 1993). This is not a truly correct translation. The term Tao refers to the concepts and philosophies that when followed and understood compel one to act in the way of the Tao. It also means, "guide not a fixed path". In the West we believe a philosophy or religion must be strictly followed and this ethnocentric view by the west has distorted the major and central meaning of following the Tao.

Lao-Tzu was born 604BC-500BC, before or a contemporary of the time of Confucius. His written text the Tao Te Ching was the founding text of Taoism (Cleary: 1993). To the Chinese it is not important to justify their beliefs, as we need to in the West. Certain aspects that we in the West consider important seem unimportant to the Chinese. Lao Tzu's actual existence is one of these aspects that western people find hard to understand. To the Chinese it is not important if he was an actual person or a name, it is the text, which is important. This can be contrasted by Westerners when hearing a quote ask, "who said that" before passing judgement on the quality of the quote.

Concepts from the earlier I Ching or as it has been translated The Book of Changes has evolved and has been altered by Lao-Tzu into an integrated system involving cycles and nature, culminating into the Tao (Baynes: 1983). The cycles of nature took the Taoist emphasis away from human centered thought. The Tao was seen as a power or energy that all things had and were part of culminating in a holistic system that people were just a small part of.

Cosmology

The early Chinese viewed the world differently to the west. Cyclic processes such as night following day were emphasised. If the Ancient Chinese saw a clock, they would see a 24 hour cycle repeating itself over and over again as well as other cycles such as months, years and so on, whereas a Westerner would see a linear flow of time starting at point A and traveling forward to a future point (Mackenzie: 1994).

Growth and decline was another important concept for the ancient Chinese. Being traditionally an agriculturally based culture the importance of crop cycles led to the evolution of the concept of growth and decline (Walters: 1992). People's life cycles followed this process and this could explain concepts that did not fit into the traditionally cyclic thought pattern as well as those that did not. These two concepts seemed to compliment each other and were not in conflict leading to a holistic greater philosophy where the sum was greater than the individual concepts (Thompson: 1989).

This in turn led to the concept of bipolarism. The ancient Chinese already focusing on nature established opposites in everything including nature. These opposites complimented each other. The opposites were important to each other and tended to merge into each other with no strict starting and ending points (Wing: 1989). This was different to the western concept of polarity involving separating things that are independent of each other. These three concepts when linked all complimented each other and could be used to explain the universe as a whole.

These three concepts and their greater holistic view led to the concept of the Tao. Tao as stated earlier have been translated into many western titles. The Way of Nature and The Way of the Universe (Walters: 1992) are other translations that are more applicable. All of these still limit the term Tao to a single concept when the term Tao should be understood to be more like the title of a book than one concept. It could be compared to the word Christianity in that it represents a holistic concept instead of individual rules of a doctrine (Thompson: 1989).

With the concept of bipolarisation came the concept of balance. The universe had to be in balance for all the parts to be healthy. Everything must be balanced. this led to the differences in the now Western and Chinese concepts of good and bad. In the west we tend to put things into categories of good and bad. In ancient china good and bad were seen to compliment each other. With good and evil being seen to be complimentary how did people know what was right and wrong? The answer was to keep the two concepts in balance. Therefore good was not good and neither was bad but an imbalance between the two were concidered to be similar to the western concept of bad. This meant that the Chinese did not see individual things as good or bad as such.

By accepting everything in nature this way concepts like spirits could not be seen as evil as they are in western thought. This gave a spiritual and animistic view, which was not in conflict with the other concepts, and cosmologies of the ancient Chinese (Wing: 1989). As with any religion or philosophy it evolves and changes as time passes. The concept of deities was later introduced into some of the Taoist schools of thought. As with Christianity the original concept seemed to fragment as it evolved through history. The influences of Confucius, Bhuddism, and other local animistic and spiritual religions beliefs meant that we can not look at Taoism today to fully comprehend the concepts that have been incorporated into the art of war (Hanzhang: 1993).

Some of the key concepts found in the Tao Te Ching included the following: "The importance of yielding. It is said that a reed that is not rigid and bends will not break and in so doing endure." The text also goes on to point out when things are young they are soft and when they die they are hard. The Tao Te Ching also teaches that the softest things can triumph over the hardest. Water is said to be able to break down rock over time.

Translations/Transliterations

The term Nature in the Art of War comes from the Chinese word jen, which also means heaven. It refers to the actions and realm of the physical laws (Wing: 1989). In the West nature is seen as physical, missing out the eastern concepts of the spiritual manifestations of nature.

The term Situation in the Art of War comes from the word ti which can mean earth, region, or place. It refers to the terrain where the laws of nature are manifested (Wing: 1989). Being linked to nature means that the word situation also has a spiritual aspect remembering that spiritual is different from religious. An individual can be spiritual and not worship in a Western religious concept.

The term Spirit comes from the word ch'i which can also be translated as breath or character. It refers to the inner strength and life force of an individual. This word can be mostly described in western terms as a mystical energy that has a character but not like a ghost with a personality comparable to a person. Ancestral spirit worship or more correctly ancestral spirit recognition is not regarded as a major event by some Chinese. Some people still follow what would be considered as primitive ancestral spirit worship in the West but these people regard spirits as commonplace, just as a westerner would regard going to church as such.

When Taoism superseded most religions where the people previously believed in ancestral spirit worship the concept of the spirit was altered to Ch'i. Later Taoist schools or sects introduced multiple gods associated with fertility and nature and others kept the ancestral spirit aspect. Just as there is no one interpretation of a Christian the same is true of Taoism. Many "New Age" Westerners have studied Taoism and taken ch'i as to be more of an energy like electricity. Reiki is a form of acupressure used to stimulate such energy through nodes and energy streams in the body to heal internal and external body ailments. Alternative medicine in the West has associated ch'i in this concept. Chinese medicine balls twice as large as golf balls or larger are held in the palm of ones hand and are rotated by the fingers. This is believed to stimulate the energy channels in the fingers and heal many ailments. Acupuncture is another way of manipulating these energy flows and nodes on the body and was established by the Taoists.

The term Composure also comes from the word ch'i which can also be translated as heart, mind, conscience. It refers to the true nature and higher mind of an individual. As can be seen an individual Chinese word in reality can represent a holistic meaning made up of many parts, which may seem unrelated by the West.

The Art of War

The Art of War consists of only 5,600 words yet states so much. This is a pattern that we see with the Tao Te Ching and other Chinese texts. Western texts seem to follow the Western idea that the larger the book the more important the message. This practice in the West has been encouraged by lawyers who traditionally were charged by the word and the books of the Bible, which in the start of the New Testament gives four interpretations of the same story.

The Art of War is divided up into 13 chapters each one looking at different areas which when all combined present the text as a single self-contained work. With all Chinese texts such as this because there is no long explanations the reader is compelled to contemplate and look at the passages as one would over a work of art taking in its meaning. Each passage can be taken individually but more can be gained by focusing on the complete work. Also being a high context culture the reader is supposed to know and understand the meanings and concepts of the text.

The simplicity of the Art of War as appossed to other Chinese texts on strategy such as the Master of Demon Valley (Cleary: 1996) means the text does not specify certain areas of strategy and exclude others. The art of war follows the principles of Taoism in that it stresses that nature and the universe are not complicated and that simplicity is the true way, not the human complexities of culture. Even Confucius agreed that simplicity was better then a complicated cultural structure. The Art of War by being uncomplicated but to the point does not alienate specific situations in which the Art of War can be utilised.

Since conflict is the texts main focus with out limiting itself to large or minor scale conflicts the art of war with its simplicity can be used for the following conflicts: Conflicts with oneself, conflict between two individuals, conflict between armies, and conflict between political organisations or countries.

The art of war is known for its use of politics in warfare. Politics in the West is understood as people negotiating or governmental power struggles, on a more deeper level politics can be seen as any interaction between people that involves the use of personal positions on issues. Usually the aim is to force or to encourage ones view onto another for ones or both parties benefit. As can be seen these two definitions of politics are different and when the later definition is used the art of war can be implemented to intrapersonal conflict up to state conflicts.

The use of spies and politics introduces non-military tools meaning that the Art of War can be used as a guide not only for individual conflicts but a campaign or war. The acquisition and use of resources is also covered in the Art of War. The text warns of the effect on troops and resources in protracted campaigns. It also gives lessons such as, it is not efficient to attack opponents' food supply and farms to try and starve an army instead of using those same troops to engage the enemy.

Motivation and moral were included in the text. One section points out that a war cannot be won if the people do not support it. This has been seen with the United States in Vietnam. Sun Tzu did execute people but he also gave people with exceptional talents higher positions. Part of this can be used as a human resource commentary but I wouldn't want to encourage executing employees who are late for work just to boost moral.

The Tao can be seen as the ethics of the Art of War. The Tao Te Ching gives guidelines and one part of the Tao Te Ching, "The Koda", deals with what the West can define as a moral code. Once again the Taoist symbolism has to be understood if for the limits and ethics of Sun Tzu's work are to be understood. Many times it states "must be done in accordance with the Tao". Of course if you don't know the meaning of the Tao then you cannot act in accordance with it and if you do not understand the symbolism in the Art of War it will limit the text to basic tactics for a single conflict and not an integrated campaign. In the west where financial gains are desired now with out much foresight for the future this text has been misunderstood to the detriment of the user. An example of this behavior was in the movie Wall Street where a corporate raider used the Art of War as his guide for raiding other companies; he did not do this in accordance with the Tao and in reality he was not working in accordance with the Tao and in so doing not adhering to the ethics of the text.

Conclusion

In conclusion this text has to be read and understood. This commentary leaves out so much and when you are describing a text with a holistic approach you will always misrepresent the text to certain degree. When I started this paper I did not realise the full scope of the text. I only hope I have given the Art of War and the Chinese people the respect they deserve by illustrating the complexity, simplicity, scope, and practicality of the text, which was written about 2,500 years ago.

I see myself as an ambassador for a culture not of my own, and this paper as fulfilling a responsibility to present an aspect of that culture. I hope people from the West can appreciate this paper and the East can take some pleasure in showing the West that a 2,500 year old text from a supposed developing region has as much if not more relevance in the developed West today.

I think this text shows that we in the West must rethink our concept of development and superiority. In business, which is increasingly competitive we need to utilize all the skills we have. Knowledge is one of these skills and other cultures collectively have more then the West and they are enhancing their own knowledge and skills by looking to the West. We have to do the same. The West's perceived intellectual superiority will lead to intellectual complacency while the rest of the world overtakes us.

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