The Art of War (Sunzi)

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The Art of War ( Chinese  孫子兵 法  /  孙子兵 法 , Pinyin Sūnzǐ Bīngfǎ , English The Art of War  - "Sunzi on the art of war") by Sunzi is considered the earliest book on strategy and is still one of the most important works on this subject to this day . Exact dates at the time of creation are not available, but it is believed to have been around 500 BC. BC.

It is still read by East Asian managers and military strategists around the world today. The book describes the necessity of using all available means and flexibility to achieve the goal and how to achieve this. Divided into 13 chapters and 68 theses, it deals with the most diverse aspects of war preparation and warfare as well as their framework conditions.

content

central message

The beginning of On the Art of War in a classic bamboo book ( 竹簡 本  /  竹简 本 , zhújiǎnběn ) made of bamboo strips ( 竹簡  /  竹简 , zhújiǎn )

The Art of War consists of 13 chapters. The following headings are quoted from the edition by James Clavell , whom the work inspired in his novel Noblehouse , the text in brackets are the same headings in the more modern translation by Zhong Yingjie:

  1. Planning (strategy)
  2. About the art of war (warfare)
  3. The sword in its scabbard (attack with strategy)
  4. Tactics (disposition of military strength)
  5. Energy (use of force)
  6. Weak and strong points (weaknesses and strengths)
  7. Maneuver (fight for initiative)
  8. Tactical Variants (Nine Variants of Tactics)
  9. The army on the march (march)
  10. Terrain (terrain)
  11. The nine situations (nine variants of the areas)
  12. Attack by fire (fire attack)
  13. The Use Of Spies (Use Of Spies)

In contrast to its European counterpart, Vom Kriege by Carl von Clausewitz, Sunzi's book is quite thin, but no less informative. Sunzi dispenses with long chains of arguments and justifications and presents his views more in the form of postulates and aphorisms , which corresponds to the typical Chinese style. The book is clearly Taoist influences, the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu dates from about the same time. His view of war has often been related to Clausewitz, especially from his well-known scientific definition of war (Part One, Book One (On the Nature of War), Chapter First (What is War?), Heading to paragraph 24 ): The war is a mere continuation of politics with the inclusion of other means , while Sunzi begins with the warning that the war is a great risk , the starting point for life and death, the way to survival or to ruin .

Theories

Sunzi warned that war and struggle should be avoided as much as possible as it ruins the state and the people. This is often interpreted to mean that non-violent strategies were central to Sunzi. The source for this is, among other things, his famous sentence that it is best to thwart the enemy's strategy, second best to break the enemy's alliances, and only in third place do battles and victories follow. It is often read that for Sunzi the best strategy is nonviolent, and violence should only be used as a last resort. However, this interpretation has given rise to criticism in the past. Axioms on the strategic importance of non-violence can only be found in the first chapters, while the vast majority of “On the Art of War” deals with the principles of mobile warfare. In addition, Sunzi does not specify what he meant by thwarting the enemy's strategy and breaking his alliances, which is why this cannot simply be interpreted as a preference for non-violence. In the overall context, the corresponding statements (including, for example, that the enemy's resistance should be broken without a fight) should be interpreted in such a way that wise action should create conditions in which the enemy can be defeated with the least possible use of force. The attacks on strategies and alliances of the enemy serve to reduce his resilience, but victory is nevertheless achieved by force.

In addition, the view that Sunzi's strategy of non-violence is central to the Chinese tradition of defensive, cautious use of force is an idealization of the actual circumstances. In its history, China has used military force very regularly to resolve conflicts. According to Johnston, "there is a yawning gap between literature on strategic culture and historical research into the use of force by China."

The assumption of an alleged non-violence as the maxim of Sunzi's strategy represents a misinterpretation made from the perspective of the second half of the 20th century, which is also made clear by the fact that Sunzi himself draws the idea of ​​military efficiency like a red thread through his theses: Only to this extent is the victory achieved or at least prepared and promoted by tactical measures such as cutting off the opponent's vital resources, espionage, but also weakening of the enemy through intrigue, regarded as the better victory. Sunzi analyzes the danger of long military conflicts as a particularly critical point for the effectiveness and existence of one's own army, which must be avoided. Sunzi demands patience and tactical wait-and-see behavior on the one hand, but on the other hand also the determination to lead the decisive military blow out of superiority when the right time has come: "In this way, the prudent fighter puts himself in a position that makes defeat impossible and he does not miss the right moment to strike the enemy ”.

As a consequence, Sunzi's strategy is therefore exclusively geared towards one goal: the complete and lasting annihilation of an opponent who has already been sufficiently weakened by appropriate tactical measures, where possible non-violent. In his opinion, this is the only way to prevent the destruction of one's own people threatened by war. All individual tactical measures are subordinate to this goal.

Aftermath

Sunzi's book is said to have been the basis for Mao Zedong's war strategies and required reading for the politico-military hierarchy of the Soviet Union , according to Clavell . Johnston, however, criticizes the "arbitrarily" drawn parallels between Sunzi and Mao and argues that Mao adopted the principle of absolute flexibility from Sunzi, but by no means a preference for non-violent conflict resolution. Statistical studies also show that the People's Republic of China in the 20th century resolved a disproportionate number of conflicts through the use of military force compared to other great powers.

It was not until 1972, when an approx. 2000 year old partially preserved copy of Sunzi's work was found together with a copy of Sun Bins About the Art of War , that it was actually two different works. Sun Bin was almost certainly a direct descendant of Sunzi, probably his great-grandchildren, and lived during the " Warring States Period ".

translation

Translation from Chinese is a major problem. The first translation into a European language was that of the Jesuit Father Joseph Amiot in 1772 into French . According to a legend, Napoleon I used this translation. In 1905 the book was first translated from Japanese into English by the British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop (1876–1915), who was living in Japan at the time, and published in Tokyo. In 1908 Calthrop published a corrected version based on a Chinese original in London. This translation was heavily criticized by the sinologist Lionel Giles , who also submitted a translation into English in 1910. In the same year, Bruno Navarra published a small volume with a translation of Sunzi and Wuzi (another military classic from ancient Chinese), which was the first German translation. The American military Samuel B. Griffith submitted his own translation as part of his doctoral thesis in 1963, which was long considered the best and was included in the list of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works . In connection with the Sunzi boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, other translations appeared, although they are of no scientific interest. In 1993, Roger T. Ames published a new translation of the work, which took into account the findings from the above-mentioned excavation, and wrote a much-praised and detailed introduction to it. In 1994 the Volkschina publishing house published a direct translation into German (see literature) in a volume with the work Sun Bin: About the art of war . The other books available in bookshops are further translations from English - with all the associated problems of a possible lack of fidelity to the original. The three texts available in German (four of which are no longer in print edition from the late 1960s) differ considerably from one another.

Topicality

Opposing views are held about the topicality of the work. A very literal view is no longer relevant after two and a half millennia. Some analogous statements are largely incompatible with modern warfare and are also relativized by Sunzi's supporters.

Sunzi's work is also carried over to the present day. Sunzi is therefore, alongside Carl von Clausewitz , one of the most important strategy theorists today. Sunzi is taught at most military academies and in many management courses. In the economic field, his teachings are often adapted to the target group.

Sunzi's statement "The greatest achievement is to break the resistance of the enemy without a fight" is best known. Sunzi is currently experiencing a major boom in US strategy schools. Many partisan theories also go back to Sunzi. From Mao Zedong is known that he was an excellent knowledge Sunzis. Sunzi regularly warns that war is expensive ("War loves victory and not duration"). The basic principle of partisan warfare, that prolonged warfare ruins the state budget of an organized great power, was used by Mao directly against the Japanese invaders.

During his visit to the USA on April 19, 2006, China's President Hu Jintao presented President Bush with a silk-embroidered copy of the work.

The film The Art of War , published in 2000, and its two successors take up the book title as a film title and also address the work in terms of content. Also, Oracle boss Larry Ellison are fond of citing the work.

Marie-France Hirigoyen explicitly refers to Sunzi several times in her book “The Masks of Wickedness”, a book about psychological violence in everyday life, by applying his strategies on the art of war also to the psychological war between two people. Sunzi writes: “All warfare is based on deception. So if we are able to attack, we must appear incapable […]; when we are close, we have to make the enemy believe we are far, when we are far we have to make them believe we are close. ”The same strategy is used by a person when they psychologically destabilize their victim would like to.

For the former chief strategist of Donald Trump , Stephen Bannon , The Art of War is supposed to offer important suggestions.

reception

Rémi Mathieu, professor of sinology at the University of Paris-Diderot and research director in the French research association CNRS, is convinced that the West has "hardly adopted Sunzi's ideas so far". This is due to the fact that the art of war was not known for a long time, but also that military interventions followed different patterns due to the two world wars in the West and, unlike Chinese strategists, postulated "a primacy of frontal attack".

“It cannot be denied: Alongside Lao Tzu and Confucius, Sunzi is one of those Chinese authors you have to know. It's always good to sprinkle a few of your aphorisms in the course of a conversation . Whether they are historically guaranteed is of secondary importance. "

- Rémi Mathieu : Philosophy magazine

literature

  • Sunzi: On the Art of War , Sun Bin: On the Art of War , in a translation by Zhong Yingjie, Volkschina Verlag. ISBN 7-80065-508-3 , (with a translation into modern Chinese); Revised new edition 2007 without Chinese text: Verlag für foreign language literature, Beijing, ISBN 978-7-119-04486-6 .
  • Wee Chow Hou : Sun Zi Art of War: An Illustrated Translation with Asian Perspectives and Insights. Prentice-Hall, Pearson Education, Singapore 2003, ISBN 0-13-100137-X .
  • Bruno Navarra: The Book of War: the Chinese military classic - with images based on Chinese originals. Boll and Pickardt, Berlin 1910; New edition as audio book: Sun Tzu: The Art of War - The Classic of Conflict Strategy. vocalbar-Verlag, 2006, with an introduction by Jörg Lehmann, speaker: Uwe Neumann. Audio CD, running time 62 min., ISBN 3-939696-00-5 .
  • Ssun-ds': Treatise on the art of war. Publishing house of the Ministry of National Defense, Berlin ( GDR ) 1957. This edition is a translation from the Russian.
  • Sun Tzu, Günter Maschke (ed.): The thirteen commandments of the art of war. Rogner & Bernhard, 1974.
  • Sunzi: The Art of War. Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., 1988 and further editions, ISBN 3-426-66645-6 .
    This edition is based on the translation by Lionel Giles, edited and modified by James Clavell .
  • Sun Tsu, Thomas Cleary (Ed.): Truly wins who do not fight. The art of war. Piper, 2001, ISBN 3-492-23330-9 .
    (Contains many comments from ancient Chinese, but these are interspersed directly into the text; the original text cannot therefore be read fluently).
  • Sun Tsu: About the art of war. Translation by Klaus Leibnitz, Karlsruhe, 1989, ISBN 3-88190-038-1 , (first German direct translation).
  • Roger T. Ames: Sun-Tzu The Art of Warfare - Translated with an Introduction and Commentary. Ballantine, New York 1993, ISBN 0-345-36239-X .
  • Sun Zi: The Art of War. The new illustrated edition by Samuel B. Griffith (Evergreen), ISBN 3-8228-5650-9 . Samuel B. Griffith is an American military historian. This edition is a translation from English.
  • Alastair Iain Johnston: Cultural Realism. Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History. Princeton 1998.
  • Stefan Moch: Far Eastern war strategies for western managers. IGEL Verlag, Hamburg, ISBN 978-3-86815-046-9 .
  • Harro von Senger (ed.): Master Sun's war canon. Stuttgart: Reclam 2011. (Reclams Universal Library No. 18841.) ISBN 978-3-15-018841-5 .
  • Sunzi, Volker Klöpsch ( transl .): SUNZI The Art of War. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-458-35116-0 .

See also

Web links

Commons : The Art of War (Sunzi)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alastair Iain Johnston: Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History. Princeton 1998, pp. 93-105.
  2. ^ Johnston: Cultural Realism, p. 27.
  3. ^ Johnston: Cultural Realism, p. 256.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Wilkenfeld, Michael Brecher, Sheila Moser: Crises in the Twentieth Century , vol. 2: Handbook of Foreign Policy Crises, New York 1988.
  5. ^ Sebastian Dobson: Lieutenant-Colonel Everard Ferguson Calthorp (1876-1915) . In: Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits . Global Oriental, Volume VIII, 2013, ISBN 978-9-0042-4646-1 , pp. 85 ff.
  6. ^ EF Calthorp: The Book Of The War: The Military Classic Of The Far East . John Murray, London 1908
  7. ↑ cf. Henry Kissinger : On China. Penguin, London 2011, p. 25. (English)
  8. ↑ Bernhard Bartsch: "The best is to run away" - Chinese guest gift gives tutoring in the art of war. In: Berliner Zeitung . April 21, 2006, accessed June 10, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Viktoria Unterreiner: A big fan of the Chinese General Sunzi . In: Welt.de . November 2, 2010, accessed August 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Marie-France Hirigoyen: The masks of infamy. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 10th edition January 2010, p. 126.
  11. ↑ Uwe Justus Wenzel : Chaos gives opportunities . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . February 25, 2017.
  12. ^ Rémi Mathieu: Sunzi and strategic thinking. In: Philosophy magazine. Retrieved on June 11, 2020 (From the French by Danilo Scholz ).