Students in this class read passages of Laotzu's classic 'Tao Te Ching' and Sun T'zu's ancient military treatise, 'Art of War.' The relationship between Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in China is problematic because they thoroughly inter-penetrated. Equally problematic is the relationship between war and peace in Chinese philosophy. Those who expect a rigid distinction between the 'art of peace' and the 'art of war' impose European moral dichotomies onto a philosophy whose heart is paradox: the integration of opposites.
Laotzu sounds pacifist, but the application of his teachings to combat by later Taoists spawned the martial arts. Peace-loving Buddhist monks practiced these martial arts for self-defense in a land governed by violent war lords. The same principles that govern a peaceful state may win a war with minimal violence. Taoist principles like Wei Wu Wei (doing without doing), the force of Yin (the feminine), and the triumph of water over rock (soft over hard), were used by Vietnam to defeat mighty Western armies. Whether or not Sun T'zu was Taoist, Confucian, or preceded both of them, he is part of the matrix of Chinese wisdom, and he is still studied in military history courses.
Excellent Essay on Sun T'zu's 'Art of War'
There Are Really No Rules In War
One of the greatest pieces of literature on war is "The Art of War"
by Sun Tzu. It was most likely written over 2500 years ago and it is
still used today at West Point. In Vietnam, captured Viet Cong officers
could recite entire passages of this document. It is on the Marine
Corps' recommended reading list and it is required reading for all CIA
officers. To merely say this is an important war strategy manual is to
deny the book enough credit.
Sun Tzu truly understood the concept of waging war. He understood that loses were to be suffered and sacrifices were to be made, but he also knew that complete annihilation of one's enemy was not necessary, and there were better strategies than just killing the enemy's people.
"It is only when one is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that one can understand the profitable way of carrying it out." This basically says that only someone who has suffered the atrocities of war knows a better way to wage it. Someone who was tortured in interrogation camps or lost a father to war or whose fields were burned during a siege knows fully how devastating a war can be, and therefore also knows a way to wage war without committing such atrocities.
One of Sun Tzu's main points in "The Art Of War" is that great victories aren't won by fighting. "Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemies resistance without fighting." He adds, " The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdoms without lengthy operations in the field." Not only did Sun Tzu know how to fight, he knew that the best way to wage war was not to fight.
The most economically draining thing a society can do is wage a lengthy war: as seen now in our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sun Tzu knew the best way was to either intimidate the enemy into not fighting, or to govern one's own kingdom in such a way that one's enemy would rather join and be a part of it than fight against it.
Sun Tzu was truly a master in "The Art Of War." (Mst. Sgt. Bradford C.)
Sun Tzu truly understood the concept of waging war. He understood that loses were to be suffered and sacrifices were to be made, but he also knew that complete annihilation of one's enemy was not necessary, and there were better strategies than just killing the enemy's people.
"It is only when one is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that one can understand the profitable way of carrying it out." This basically says that only someone who has suffered the atrocities of war knows a better way to wage it. Someone who was tortured in interrogation camps or lost a father to war or whose fields were burned during a siege knows fully how devastating a war can be, and therefore also knows a way to wage war without committing such atrocities.
One of Sun Tzu's main points in "The Art Of War" is that great victories aren't won by fighting. "Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemies resistance without fighting." He adds, " The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdoms without lengthy operations in the field." Not only did Sun Tzu know how to fight, he knew that the best way to wage war was not to fight.
The most economically draining thing a society can do is wage a lengthy war: as seen now in our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sun Tzu knew the best way was to either intimidate the enemy into not fighting, or to govern one's own kingdom in such a way that one's enemy would rather join and be a part of it than fight against it.
Sun Tzu was truly a master in "The Art Of War." (Mst. Sgt. Bradford C.)
There Are Really No Rules In War
“Battles can only be won if rules are broken” (Tao Te Ching). This statement reminds me of Iraq, because everything that we do over in Iraq is not always right. In war you have to learn to adapt to your environment, and be able to make quick smart decisions, for survival. I have seen leaders act out of character, not even considering regulation or standard procedures in order to find out answers in certain incidents. No war is fault clean, all the proper rules of engagement are not always followed, and a lot of paper gets tampered with to paint a pretty picture for the public. Yes, on paper there may be rules to follow, but there are no real rules in war.
'Art of War' In Iranian Strategy
"In the Art of War, Sun-Tzu wrote, The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.
"At the basis of this verse is the Taoist belief that small states should surrender to larger states without a fight because, warring is useless and wasteful. The principle is demonstrated in Iran's successful takeover of Iraq's government, army, and police.
"Without firing a round themselves, Iran has placed it's Shiite Muslim loyalists in top political positions through the so-called democracy that the United States put into place. They use Pro-Iranian political parties like the Islamic Dawa Party, Office of the Martyr Sadr, and the Supreme Islamic Council to control Iraq. Iraq's police and army consist almost exclusively of members of the Office of the Martyr Sadr - mostly from its military wing, Jaysh Al-Mahdi - and the Supreme Islamic Council - mostly from its military wing, Badr Corps."
Commentary On a Verse of Sun T'zu
“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it. (“Art of War,” Sun Tzu) With me being a Military man and studying battle tactics, I see this principle demonstrated time and time again, most recently in Iraq. We came in and destroyed more than we needed to and now we are rebuilding. The Iraqi military was basically eliminated when they where needed most. Now we are putting in billions of dollars and countless hours rebuilding the Iraqi military so it can defend itself."
Know Your Enemy, 1
"If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. This verse teaches us that with every battle against our enemy, even if it ends in victory, the enemy is getting to know us and our tactics better and better. Our military today does not know the enemy we are fighting. But the terrorists in Iraq know us all too well. They are able to predict our next move and know when we are going to strike.”
Know Your Enemy, 2
"In The Art of War, Sun T'zu states, 'If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.'
"I think that our country has proven this statement time and time again, the most recent being with the Iraq war. It is true that the war was quick, but it is our lack of knowledge of the enemy that keeps the conflict going. Our Army demolished the Iraqi Army with little effort, and yet here we are, years later, and still not done. We knew what we could do. We knew the kind of power our weapons had. However, we did not know the average Iraqi citizen, or the effect that he would have on our ability to accomplish victory. And thus with this war, for all the victory gained, we have truly suffered a defeat."
Lao-tzu's Rules of War
"Lao-tzu writes: Kingdoms can only be peaceful if rules are followed. Battles can only be won if rules are broken. I am in a battle now, while in
An NCO Is Like Water
"Lao-tzu writes: Nothing is softer or gentler than water: but nothing is its equal in destroying what is hard. Water is soft and gentle but when confronted it is fierce and unstoppable. I think that is a lot like our NCO core in the military. NCO's need to be soft and gentle to be approachable for teaching. They also need to be fierce when teaching soldiers how to fight."
Reading Taoist Philosophy
“I appreciate the words of Lao-tzu in his statement that, "Nothing under Heaven is softer or more yielding than water; but when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail." This statement coincides closely with what the book of Proverbs in the Bible says about the heart being the "wellspring of life", and how everything we speak and think flows forth from that "water" source. I know in my own life that my attitudes and actions are the result of one of two responses from my heart: humility (softness or gentleness), or the stone wall of pride--a powerful will that does not move except by the touch of God. That the same heart can produce two such profoundly different responses is a truth eloquently expressed by Lao-tzu.
“On the other side of the same coin, the philosopher states later in the same passage that "the yielding conquers the resistant and the soft conquers the hard". The strength of gentle speech and a response that is non-violent is contrary to popular propaganda and is atypical in the world today. If we could wrap our minds around this reverse psychology, we might begin to see change in the violent tendencies that are so prevalent in our world today.
Lao-Tzu, Sun-Tzu, and Machiavelli
"Sun Tsu wrote, "All warfare is based on deception." A line from Laotzu in our assignment says, "Battles are only won if rules are broken." I find it amazing that thousands of years old texts can bring insight into modern times. In an age where warfare is defined as "asymmetric" the principle of "framework operations" based on deception and coercion are alive and well."Sun Tsu was and still is very profound to anyone who views warfare as a craft and his most famous work calls it an "Art". The overall theme of his writing is to make the enemy fight on your terms rather than his. Today we call it "framework operations" and that is how I interpret Sun Tzu's concept of "attacking the enemy's strategy" rather than attacking the enemy directly.
"Laotzu says: 'The adherence of all under heaven can only be won by letting alone". He also states: "So long as I act only by non-action, the people will of themselves become prosperous." These verses bring a point of contention for me. I find myself much more cynical in my view of mankind. More reflective of my view on government and leadership is Machiavelli: "Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it." While I am not quite THAT cynical of the nature of man, I do feel that the large majority of people are driven toward moral responsibility not by their innate goodness, but their fear of repercussion through either worldly law or the fear of hell.
"No place is this more evident than among the people of Iraq. In both my tours of duty I observed how the infrastructure of the entire nation literally fell apart once Saddam was removed from power. To our folly we had assumed that the nation did not need such a tyrannical ruler. Even after 6 years the government is in shambles due to the overlooked fact that man by nature is selfish and in particular in the region, worries about himself before all other things. Men turned on their neighbors and clans on other clans, simply due the the fact that the repercussions were taken away. One particular example that stands out in my mind is watching a Iraqi Police officer literally taking a soccer ball out of the hands of a crying child whom only minutes before had received it from a soldier. One will see occurrences like this on a daily basis over there, so the concept brought forth in these readings of a Utopian concept of trusting man to live without enforced laws and prohibitions, may be poetic but misses the true nature of men."
Commentary on a Verse from 'The Art of War'
"Thus the highest form of generalship is not to attack the enemy, but to attack the enemy's strategy. This reminds me of the 'wu wei' principle, or 'action without action' in Taoism. This principle holds that what appears weak may actually be a display of strength. A good example is water. Sitting still, it is moldable, completely passive; but anyone who has ever been caught in a storm at sea knows that it is one of the most awesome forces on earth. Even a gently flowing stream over centuries can carve rock. 'Conventional' military war strategy often believes that the best defense is a good offense. However, the BEST strategy is to know your opponent's strategy. By NOT immediately fighting the opposition, but instead appearing peaceful and refusing to fight while studying one's opponent, one will learn how best to defeat that opponent, while possibly frustrating him in the meantime, and thereby weakening him. M.W.
On a Verses from 'The Art of War'
"The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness."
" I completely disagree with this statement. The commander that I see has none of these traits. The commander I see is corrupt and crooked, deceitful and foolish. In today’s wars, we don’t fight each other to protect any one. We fight each other because it’s convenient. We fight wars so the higher echelons can collect bloody revenue from oil and land. This statement is how a commander should be, but isn’t.
"In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it."
"This is another statement relevant to the war in Iraq. This would have been a good strategy to use when we started this war on “terror,” but we didn’t apply this strategy at all. Every thing that has or had value in Iraq is now destroyed because we invaded Iraq. This country is useless to a point where the people of Iraq don’t even want it any more themselves, much less the U.S. This is another good statement that the “Commander” should have applied to his little war on terror Iraq invasion tactic.
"Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
"I like this statement because it a good strategy if you can actually pull it off, but it will never work in today’s world."
Taoism: Wisdom of Experience
“The line I want to comment on is, Only he who has accepted the dirt of the country can be lord of its soil-shrines. I take this to mean that if you haven’t tried something yourself, you have no knowledge on which to talk, and any thoughts you may have on that subject are prejudiced or preconceived. Even if you have studied something for a long time, if you don’t have first-hand knowledge of it, you can’t be an expert. That’s what I teach my soldiers. I ask, “In what Field Manual do you find experience?” They usually don’t like to admit they don’t know, so they hazard a guess. No matter what their reply, though, I tell them, “Wrong. You can’t get experience from a book. You have to live it."
Geneva Conventions and Laotzu
"Laotzu's line, Battles can only be won if rules are broken, really hit home with me. I've been serving in Iraq for nearly four months now, and never have I seen that phrase make more sense than over here. Coalition forces, for the most part, have strict guidelines we must abide by while we are here. It's obvious how far that's gotten us. Meanwhile, insurgents are planting bombs in markets, making attacks during a holy month, and using women and children to aid their brutal campaign. I have personally dealt with a detainee, and not only did we act in accordance of the Geneva Convention, we fed the guy. This is us following the rules. I do not expect the same treatment if I was to ever be captured. They break the rules and secure themselves small victories, while we follow the rules of war and struggle to keep our heads above the water. "
Not Following the Rules
Tao Te Ching Chapter LVII: "Kingdoms can only be governed if rules are kept, battles can only be won if rules are broken" This passage grabbed me when I read it. I was deployed to Iraq in 2005. The country was falling apart because the citizens there were not following the rules or the laws of the land. The country or kingdom was in total chaos. We were brought into the country to regain order or fight this battle against the Iraqi insurgents. These insurgents attack American Soldiers with no remorse or respect for the laws of war. They cut the heads off of prisoners, set up road -ide bombs and booby-trap innocent women and children. With all these obstacles placed in front of American soldiers, we are still required to win this war by following all the rules. After seeing many of my battle buddies die, I find myself wishing that we could go back to the old days."
Commentary On a Verse of Lao-tzu
"The more laws that are made by government, the more thieves and vagabonds will arise in the land. ('Tao Te Ching')
"I am reminded of a lower enlisted Marine many years ago. This Marine lived in base housing and had a family to feed and payday was not close enough. He was turned down for food stamps and needed food desperately, so he went out and shot a deer on base and was cleaning it in his tub. Unfortunately, there had been numerous rapes on base, and MPs were making rounds and found this guy covered in blood. He was charged for a terrible crime because he was not permitted to hunt on base. Thankfully, this man’s commander felt that it was just a good time to get the guy some financial help and the case was dropped....
"There are definitely laws made that are completely ineffective. In South Carolina, there is one that states that a man must not beat his wife on the steps of the courthouse… on Sundays."
Commentary On a Verse of Lao-tzu
"Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water; but when it attacks things hard and resistant, there is not one of them that can prevail. " ('Tao Te Ching')
"Water is a kingdom unto itself, if we look at the way it moves and how it affects our world. Sometimes water breaks the rules of life in order to give us a deeper appreciation of life.
"Water is a force gentle and loving, yet a force to be reckoned with. It can refresh, sustain and give life to a dying body, or bring death to the masses... I think about the tsunami in Thailand and Indonesia, how people were washing their clothing with water before the tsunami hit. Fisherman were fishing in water, trying to catch life-sustaining food for themselves and their families. Near-by, there was a water purification plant used to make this same water a drinkable substance. But in a moment, a shift occurred below the ocean, arousing and awakening a beast in hibernation, one that doesn't want to be moved or touched for a season because it's time is not yet. The hard part about this is that you have to love the beast for who it is, because although it can be a source of death, it can also be a source of life."
The Weak Can Conquer the Strong
"The weak are conquerors of the strong, the pliable are conquerors of the rigid. In the world every one knows this, but none practice it".
"As a veteran who served a year in Iraq, I find this quote to be very true. While I do believe that Americans will win the war on terrorism, I also believe that we underestimated our opponent. We didn't expect them to be as smart and cunning as they are. The technology that they are using is far better than I would have expected. We went over their with our chests puffed up, not thinking that we could ever be pushed back. I pray every night that Americans would humble themselves and learn to respect their opponents on all sides."
The Iraq War Through Sun Tz'u's Eyes
* It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
"In the light of Sun T’zu, I cannot help but think that Taoist philosophy goes against everything regarding war and profit (which I think are different sides of the same coin). From my point of view, this reminds me of all the times that I and my comrades said, 'Every politician who supports this war, and is getting paid by it, should have to send their children to the line units in Irag/Afghanistan.' I truly believe that until one has fought in a war, toe-to-toe with the enemy, they shouldn’t be sending troops and dictating rules of engagement when life and death are at stake for soldiers.
* In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it.
"Ironically, since Taoists believe in discarding profit, any war would violate Taoist philosophy, since all wars are fought over profits. Some people believe that wars are fought over religious ideals, but the reality is, even with ideals, someone at the top is getting paid.
"In the modern sense, this passage has particular significance to me. I remember being a freshmen in high school and hearing General Colin Powell describe what is now known as the Powell Doctrine: Attack with an overwhelming force, have the support of your nation, and have an exit strategy. When I read this passage by Sun T'zu, I think of the current war in Iraq, and the hole that our military has dug itself into. I compare this to the Ottoman empire, how they practiced the policy laid out by Sun T'zu: invade, mantain the local native police force, since they know the culture, then install an Ottoman chief to monitor them. I note how this policy was totally ignored by American leaders. Now our military must become the police, and train corrupt new local recruits. And yet we expected this war to be over, by magic, in one day.
* If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will lose every battle.
"As a soldier, I can’t help but think of the people running our military. So often I feel as if they have no clue who their enemy is, or who their soldiers are. The lessons laid out by Sun T'zu are so simple, but as modern corporations strive for profits (including the corporation we call our Army), the lessons are ignored by incompetent leaders."
Five Essentials for Victory
Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has freedom in strategic decisions, and is not interfered with by the emperor....
"The five essentials for victory sound like something today’s officers would learn in training. 1. Assess your enemy and pick your battles, only fighting when you know you can win. 2. Winning means knowing how to work with people above you in your chain of command but you must have the respect of your subordinates. 3. It takes motivated troops to win in battle and maintain readiness throughout times of peace. 4. Training battle drills until they become instinct makes your unit react quickly to combat situations. The element of surprise can help you overwhelm an unsuspecting enemy. 5. Micromanagement of subordinates leads to predictability and causes dissension in the ranks. The army would say do your job and delegate responsibility to your small unit leaders."
