Comparing: Nature's Behavior
The Art of War 9:4.7-15
This post continues our project explaining each stanza of Sun Tzu’s work. The English translation and Chinese transliterations are from my award-winning book, The Art of War and The Ancient Chinese Revealed.
The ideas explained in this article are from the middle of Section Four of Chapter 9 of The Art of War. This chapter is entitled Armed March. Its general topic is making competitive moves that advance our positions. It is one of the longest and most detailed chapters in the book. This section and the following one look at the ways we can discern people’s intentions from what we can see happening around us. This is also a warning about how others can recognize our movements, even if we think they are hidden.
The World Reacts
This part of the book tells us how to translate what we see happening in our surroundings in knowledge of what others are doing. We can see disturbances in the environment as information about movements that others are trying to hide. These disturbances are not evaluated over long periods of time, but at the moment they are observed. Vegetation normally moves too slowly for us to observe. If we see it moving, some other force has moved it.
In an earlier article, we noted that vegetation, because it is stable, might hide dangers. These stanzas continue that discussion. If we pay attention, we can get information about what type of movements they are hiding.
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.
Mountains
<Crowd> <tree> <moves> <is>
The trees in the forest move.
Since vegetation cannot move on its own, their movement indicates other forces at work in the terrain. Forests are the vegetation associated with mountains. The Chinese character meaning <Crowd> means many trees or “forest”. The way that these trees move tell us something about what is moving them. When the entire forest moves gently, the force is likely a breeze, but when the movement is limited to a line of trees, it is likely a group of men moving the trees, using the forest to camouflage their actions. In modern environments, these forests are associated with hierarchical organizations. Their trees on not workers or decision-makers, but the bureaucrats within them.
These bureaucracies are a branching network that can include our competitors, but they also can include are potential customers, suppliers, regulators, and so on. Opposing organizations may try to hide their movement to new positions, but the way they work with all these bureaucracies will reveal much about what they are trying to do. News of their movements may be scattered and spotty, but over time, the pattern will become clear.
<Come> <also>
Expect that the enemy is coming.
The first pattern that we look for is that this hidden movement is moving closer and closer to our positions. Even though their actions are hidden within other organizations, we hear more and more about them.
Marshes and Level Plains
This environmental “vegetation” of tall grasses can always hide dangers, but its movement can also show us hidden movements of others.
<Crowd> <grass> <many> <obstruct> <is>
The tall grasses obstruct your view.
These “grasses” are the smaller organizations that populate the plains, and, more sparsely, the marshes. Secret movements through expanses of smaller organizations are more difficult to see. Smaller organizations, even those in the same general market areas, do not tend to keep in close contact with each other. There are too many of them. We must keep a watch on more of them to identify hidden movement. However, we can see signs of this movement after it takes place. People cannot move through grasses without trampling down a trail.
Competitors can use their small actions in these smaller organizations to hide their movement toward our positions. Screens of grasses are difficult to penetrate, but trampled down grasses are easy to see from a higher position. However, marshes and level plains have fewer high places from which we can see such areas,
<Doubt> <also>
Be suspicious.
When we or our customers or allies, depend upon this “grassland” of smaller organizations, we must always question our surroundings. We must really upon our network of contacts to report on any “trampled down areas” around them and where they might lead.
Non-Threatening Animals
There are always other competitors in our environment who don’t compete with us. In the natural environment, these are other forms of animals. In social environments, they are people and organizations that have very different goals than our own. They may be our customers, suppliers, allies, and so on. They are also being compared with others and also trying to improve their positions. We can see their reactions to the movement of others, even when our opponents want to be hidden.
<Bird> <rise> <is>
The birds take flight.
“Birds” are the forms of non-threatening competitors that are startled by the movements of our environment. One common form of “bird” are bankers. However, their actions are not as easily observed, but they tend to share information only with each other and their good customers. When we have a good relationship with our bank, they will give us information because what is good for us is good for their business. They are especially useful when our competitors are not among their customers. It always makes sense to use bankers who do not do business with our competition.
<Hide> <also>
Expect that the enemy is hiding.
Another sign of competitive movement is that people in our environment are suddenly quiet about what our competitors are doing. Sudden secrecy is also a sign of trouble. Banks, shared customers, suppliers and so on may regularly share information with us about our competitors and what they are doing. A sudden silence is warning of a potential attack.
<Beast> <startle> <is>
Animals startle.
Everyone is curious and careful about competitive movements into their areas, even if those moving are not direct competitors. Many business suspicious of strangers in their areas. They often make their own moves to adjust to them.
<Overturn> <also>
Expect an ambush.
In all the situations described in this article, we should expect a competitive intrusion into our territory. The type of competitive attack that is coming is given away by the “dust” it raises. This is the topic of next week’s strategy article.