Comparing: Different Terrains - Part 2
The Art of War 9:1.10-9:1.14 You need to be able to fight.
This post continues our project explaining each stanza of Sun Tzu’s work. The English and Chinese quotes are from my award-winning translation, The Art of War and The Ancient Chinese Revealed. Basic translations are written from the narrow perspective of opposing armies. These articles focus on the more general application of this philosophy to all competition. Start here for the book’s opening lines.
The lessons examined in this article are from Section One of Chapter 9 of The Art of War. This chapter is entitled Armed March. Its general topic is competitive moves that advance our positions. It is one of the longest and most detailed chapters of the book.
The first section of this chapter describes the four different types of terrain in which we may face competition. These four types of competitive arenas are described briefly in this earlier article. Here, we looked at the third stanza, which deals with “water” or fluid areas, and the fourth stanza, which deals with “marshes” or uncertain areas..
In the lines below, we summarize the Chinese characters in their original order, each with a single English word shown in < > brackets. This transliteration of the Chinese is followed by an English sentence translation.
<Want> <battle> <is>
You need to be able to fight.
Competition is comparison. The only way we can advance our positions in the minds of others is to win these comparisons, no matter what type of terrain. We must seek comparisons in order to win them.
Fluid Terrain 2
<Without> <attaching> <to> <water> <and> <yet> <welcome> <guest>
You can’t do that if you are caught in water when you meet an invader.
As we explained in an earlier article, “water” is what we call “fluid” terrain. These are areas that are fast changing. For example, the software business is more fluid than the hardware market. These competitive arenas favor businesses that are supported by the direction in which that arena is changing. The hard part is knowing where those currents will lead. We don’t have to plunge in ourselves to get this information. We can find this out by seeing those successfully navigating the arena’s changes.
<Show> <birth> <position> <high>
Position yourself upstream, facing the sun.
Once we have a good sense of where the currents of change are headed, we can position ourselves as a leader in that current of change. We make our support of these changes very visible so that we can become identified with the direction of change. We cannot actually set the trend, but we can become identified with it by embracing it.
<Without> <welcome> <water> <flow>
Never face against the current.
Fluid ground offers an advantage to those embracing the current rather than opposing it. We do not even have to adopt these changes very quickly in actual practice. We can win competitive comparisons on fluid ground as long as we are compared to those who oppose the dominant trend rather than accepting it.
<Here> <position> <water> <up> <of> <army> <also>
Always position your army upstream when near the water.
We not only identify with the direction of change, but we can draw our intellectual resources from it without getting dangerously far out in front of the competition. For example, if we are talking about a new technology, we can discuss our planned use of that technology to build our positions, developing demonstrations of it. We then find allies who share our vision,
Uncertain Terrain
In the fourth stanza, the topic changes to discussing the competitive challenges of “marshes.” Marshes are an analogy for any competitive arena where the footing is uncertain. There are spots of solid ground in marshes, but most positions are soft and sinking, slowly or quickly.
All competition takes place in the future, and the future is always uncertain, but some competitive arenas exist because of their uncertainty. That uncertainty offers both potential rewards and potential pain. People are attracted by the rewards despite the possible pain. The stock market, for example, is an attractive uncertain ground.
Change is the source of all opportunity, What is up today is more likely to go down tomorrow. In these areas, people are always looking for islands of relative stability. Much of this stability is an illusion, but, in marshes, opinions can be more important than facts. Positions are built on the facts of the past, but with the opinions about the future.
<Break> <off> <expand> <pond>
You may have to move across marshes.
We must make judgements about uncertain areas and how risky they are. Most uncertain areas are not as rewarding on the whole. When we find ourselves within one, we must explore those areas, but only to find a fast path through them. We are not looking to expand our positions into them unless we accidently stumble across one of the few more stable rewarding areas hidden within them.
<However> <urgently> <arrive> <do> <not> <stay>
Move through them quickly without stopping.
The rule for marshes is “not stopping.” When we stop, we start sinking into their uncertainties, getting sucked down. We keep moving because, if we are moving, the “soft” nature of the ground, doesn’t have time to drag us down. All “marsh” positions grow more and more unpredictable over time.
<If> <meet> <army> <at> <expand> <pond> <’s> <middle>
You may meet the enemy in the middle of a marsh.
In these uncertain areas, we still seek to be compared to other competitors even if the comparisons are based upon our temporary positions on unstable ground. In these situations, we are compared to others based upon our relative stability. We want to position ourselves in uncertain areas on the most solid ground available.
<Must> <depend> <on> <water> <grass>
You must keep on the water grasses.
Marshes are made up of more fluid and more solid areas, which Sun Tzu describes as <water> and <grass>. We want our temporary positions in marshes to be based more on what is solid than any of our competitors.
<And> <yet> <back> <crowd> <tree>
Keep your back to a clump of trees.
Walls make the best defensive positions. We can find walls even on uncertain ground. They may be difficult to use, but when we are being compared on relative stability, making the effort is worth it.
<Here> <position> <expand> <pond> <’s> <army> <also>
This is how you position your army in a marsh.
If we can find more solid ground in an uncertain terrain, one defended by walls, we can use it to establish or extend our positions even in more permanent ways.