Comparing: Restraint

The Art of War 5:3.1-6

This article continues our project explaining the stanzas 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.

The six lines discussed in this article are the beginning of the Third Section of Chapter 5. This chapter explains how strategic Momentum is created by direct action with the addition of surprise. This section adds a third aspect to this: the importance of restraint in reaching our goals.

We often think of surprise simply as doing the unexpected, but our concern is not just what we do, but its effect on the minds of others. The goal of surprise is to get attention and to change the way others think about us, winning their approval. Everything that we get in life comes from others making comparisons and choosing to reward us. We all seek rewards, whether they are the rewards of people’s time, their love, their trust, or money.

Surging Power

The flow of water is an important analogy for Sun Tzu’s methods. He uses it in Chapter 6, the one following this one, to explain the complementary nature of Weakness and Strength. Though he writes about strategy from the perspective of how our minds work, our minds work the way they do because our survival depends upon adapting to the hard realities of our natural environment. Our minds reflect the rules of nature. Therefore, our use of momentum reflects momentum in nature.

<Flow> <water> <of> <rapid>
Surging water flows together rapidly.

Water, as one of the five basic elements of traditional Chinese science, represents change. It aligns with the strategic element of change, Climate. While the slow flow of water can erase mountains if given enough time, momentum comes from sudden changes.

As discussed in this earlier article, we do not create our own opportunities. Others must create them for us. And, as explained in this different article, opportunities are constantly being created by everyone’s changing needs. Strategy must recognize such changes instantly. Sudden change is the opportunity for momentum It occurs more often than most of us realize. We must use these opportunities to harness the power of momentum.

How do we use that power? To float rocks.

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

<Stop> <to> <float> <rock> <is>
Its pressure washes away boulders.

This analogy for moving people to support us instead of oppose us is both unexpected and accurate. While rocks naturally sink and people naturally ignore of oppose us, the power of surging water can lift them up and move them as lightly as leaves. However, before they are lifted, the water briefly stops in front of them. It takes a moment for the water’s momentum to overcome the rock’s inertia. This gathering of power is part of the harnessing momentum. Only after we gather power from the change can we move others. This brief stop is the crouch before the pounce, the pause before the punchline, the climb before the dive, the very necessary gathering of strength before using momentum.

This brings us to the importance of restraint.

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