What I’m Reading Right Now: “The Art Of War” By Sun-tzu
The Art of War is a classic read, of course, which is one of the reasons I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get around to it.
I am reading the edition edited and translated by John Minford (Penguin, 2003), which comprises two parts: the original Sun-tzu text; followed by the same text with commentaries from throughout the several thousand year history of the text—fascinating in and of itself.
I think the original text is really insightful and many of its observations are still relevant today, as is much of the commentary.
For example:
“In war,
victory should be
swift.
If victory is slow,
men tire,
morale sags.
Sieges
exhaust strength;
Protracted campaigns
strain the public treasury…
…No nation has ever benefited
from a protracted war.”
Upon which the commentator Li Quan observes: “…’War is like fire. Those who cannot bring hostilities to a close burn themselves out.'”
I am beginning to understand why this book is still being read around 2500 years after it is believed to have been written.
The various administrations waging ‘war on terror’ should take note of that quote you have there… Alas that we vote in people who won’t be around in a few years to reap the consequences of what they have sown (oops, I just burst the democratic bubble)
I did choose that quote because it seemed apposite to our times, although so, too, does the passage I’m currently reading, which relates to attacking strategy, in order to win without fighting, which would fit with tactics of terror, among others.
I think one of the discouraging things about reading this book is that both Master Sun and his commentators well understood the destructive waste of war and yet we still seem to have to learn and relearn this lesson every few generations.