The previous article explained what is hidden in the first six lines of this Section of Chapter 5 of The Art of War. They explored how the two ways of advancing our positions—direct actions and surprise—work together. Their point was that surprise enables us to advance. Their last lines describe the endless stream of surprising innovations possible. One of the fun aspects of Sun Tzu is how much he values strategic creativity. I first became known for using The Art of War in the world of high-tech competition. These ideas about innovation and surprise were central to our company’s message to our customers. Our products and services were designed for continuous improvement, not only for our company but for our customers as well.
This article goes deeper into Sun Tzu’s ideas on innovation. It examines the ancient philosophy that underlies this work. The Chinese view was that the physical world was composed of mixtures of five basic elements. Sun Tzu based his five strategic elements defining a position on these five natural elements. He also based his understanding of the creation and destruction of our positions on them. The diagrams above show the Chinese elements and their cycles. For Sun Tzu, Earth was the basis of Ground; Water was Climate; Metal was Command,; Wood was Methods; and Fire was Mission.
(In the quotations from The Art of War and the Ancient Chinese Revealed below, we summarize each Chinese character as a single English word shown in < > brackets. The Chinese is followed by a sentence from my award-winning English translation.)
Sun Tzu recognizes that any direction of progress can come to a dead end.
<End> <and> <yet> <return> <to> <start>
You can be stopped and yet recover the initiative.
In the context of competition, this appears to be a generic positive message about never giving up, but it is more than that. This is about our use of surprise and direct action. Though innovation is an “endless stream,” one direction of its flow can peter out. When it does, we must get creative again about our direction of progress.
<Day> <month> <correct> <also.>
You must use your days and months correctly.
A good, alternative translation of the Chinese here might be, “In as soon as a day or a month, we can correct being stalled.” A good surprise can give a dead-in-the-water strategic campaign new life. One of the most valuable features of surprise is that it takes affect suddenly. In today’s world, a great surprise often takes the form of an meme that goes viral and starts people talking. This speed of surprise is another part of “using the days and months correctly.” As Sun Tzu wrote in Chapter 11, “Mastering speed is the essence of war.” Most direct actions take time to execute. A surprise may take days and months to prepare, but it is unleashed in a moment.
Creation and Destruction
In the next two lines, Sun Tzu seems to repeat a message that is very similar to this one about speed, but he also brings in the big picture of the way the five elements of nature work.
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