Comparing: Establishing the Empty Self

The Art of War 6:3.10-13

This article continues our project explaining each line of Sun Tzu’s work. The English and Chinese are from my award-winning translation, The Art of War and The Ancient Chinese Revealed. Start here for the book’s opening lines.

Competition is only a comparison. We are constantly being compared to others. We advance our positions in life by advancing our positions in the minds of those who compare us to others for potential rewards. The lessons of the third Section of Chapter 6 of The Art of War are about how we use the “empty self” when we enter new competitive arenas without a position. This chapter is about “weakness” and “strength,” which Sun Tzu describes as “emptiness” and “fullness.” The “empty self” is the ultimate in weakness, but it has its advantages when entering and advancing in a new environment. These next lines of Sun Tzu are about using our emptiness to establish a fuller position.

The “empty self” moves into new competitive arenas easily, but it is a ghost. Its position has no form or substance in the minds of others. This makes our initial small advances easy, but at some point, our ghostly form must take shape. We must establish it so that it takes the shape of a meaningful position in the minds of others.

The Right Comparisons

We cannot avoid being compared to others. Foolish people resist this idea, but we should want to be compared. Knowing we cannot avoid comparison, we can act to control the nature of those comparisons.

• (In the quotations below, we summarize each Chinese character as a single English word shown in < > brackets. A sentence from my English translation follows.)

<Make> <I> <desire> <battle>
Always pick your own battles.

Sun Tzu calls the situations at which we are compared “battles.” We will never establish a position unless we invest or efforts resources in winning these battles. We must actively work to shape how, when, and to whom we are compared. At first, the empty-self seeks to advance by improving in small ways that can win us a little recognition and, in some cases, tiny rewards. These small advances earn us a little respect, but they do not move us up in the hierarchy of people. These moves are explorations, teaching us enough to earn a position over others.

Avoiding Defenses

We cannot justify our role in any competitive environment unless we win the battles of comparison. Since we are initially “empty,” we have small credibility and limited resources. Given our limitations, we must find ways to surpass others in the minds of those whose judgments matters to us. We analyze the positions of those around us to find openings into which we can move.

<Enemy> <although> <high> <rampart> <deep> <moat>
The enemy can hide behind high walls and deep trenches.

What we see initially about the positions of others is their strengths, their fullness. Fullness is easy to see. We see how they have set their defenses against attacks on their positions. Good strategy never seeks to overcome these strengths.

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