Comparing: What is Unspoken
The Art of War 9:5.8-13 Your enemy tries to sue for peace but without offering a treaty.
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 third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth stanzas of Section Five 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, and this is one of its longest sections.
All the stanzas here are two lines. The first line describes words or actions that are at odds with each other. Though this is translated for the book in terms of interpreting an enemy’s actions, the Chinese term <enemy> is never used here (or, in this entire chapter). The point is that anyone can attempt to mislead others using these tactics.
In the lines below, we summarize each Chinese character with a single English word shown in < > brackets in their original order. This transliteration of the Chinese is followed by an English sentence translation.
Contradictions
The first lesson here is about a request for cooperation.
<Without> <appointment> <and> <request> <harmony> <is>
Your enemy tries to sue for peace but without offering a treaty.<Scheme> <also>
He is plotting.
A common misdirection of this type in the modern business world is from people telling buyers that they will buy, but they avoid signing an order requesting delivery on a specific date. Many buyers have found that the easiest way to get rid of a salesperson is to promise them an order in the future.
They don’t offer sales objections. Instead, they agree with everything about the delivery of a product. However, what they don’t do is sign any kind of commitment to order.
It is always easier to delay a salesperson than to argue with them. What is needed is a formal commitment to take a future step. The next step can be anything tangible. Even scheduling a future meeting is helpful. The more effort buyers have to make in honoring that commitment, such as coming to see you instead of your going to see him or her, the more solid that commitment becomes.
Another delaying tactic of this type is someone suggesting that they want to marry someone but never committing to a date. Engagements were invented to make these commitments more formal, public, and binding. Another example in diplomacy is agreeing on a new treaty, but never signing an formal document.
<Run> <depart> <and> <yet> <display> <military> <is>
Your enemy’s men run to leave and yet form ranks.<Expect> <also>
You should expect action.
We should never expect anyone to fully abandon an existing position. We may claim to be abandoning something we value: a spouse, a product, a job position, and so on. We may make some quick, easy moves to get out of those positions, but it is difficult to give up anything we own.
If others make a moved to take over an old position, most people will take action against them. If someone tries to date a past spouse, they will work to stop them. The same is true of market positions or job positions. In many case, someone might not even realize that their intensions are not conflicted until someone tries to take what was once theirs.
<Half> <advance> <and> <half> <retreat> <is>
Half his army advances and the other half retreats.<Bait> <also>
He is luring you.
Sometimes, people will put resources both into improving aspects of their existing positions and into dismantling other parts of those positions. Those parts may seem as though they are being opened up for others. This opening looks like an opportunity, but it seldom actually is.
The problem is that no one really understands the positions of others and all the connections within their parts. Their past owners are using their superior knowledge of their position to make it easy to overthrow any partial position that we develop. The general strategic rule is that we completely fill up any position into which we move. A partially emptied position will be conflicted ground.
The Condition of Others
We expect others to advance into openings. When they don’t, they have a reason. If we think about it, we can make serious guesses about what condition they are in.
<Fight> <and> <yet> <stand> <is>
Your enemy plans to fight but his men just stand there.<Starving> <also>
They are starving.
People can seriously intend to compete with us, but, when the time comes to act, they don’t take action. This often indicates a lack of resources. It takes resources to advance any position. The primary resources that positions need to be productive are their “food.” As Napoleon famously said, “an army travels on its stomach.” It takes more resources to advance a position than it takes to defend one.
Leaving a position and moving to a new one require resources. Sometimes those resources must be solid assets: a car, a house, and so on. All a very helpful if trying to acquire any new position or defend an existing one. Without solid resources, we are stuck where we are, neither advancing nor retreating.
We also need liquid resources.
<Draw> <and> <yet> <first> <drink> <is>
Those who draw water drink it first.<Thirsty> <also>
They are thirsty.
One type of liquid resource is water. Water is needed to maintain many types of positions, especially farms. However, the most common form of liquid resources are cash money. Everyone needs money, so we can tell their priorities by how they spend it. In a business, this is easy. If their money goes into sales, their problem is getting orders. If their money goes into manufacturing, their problem is getting their costs down. If their money goes to marketing, the problem is a lack of prospects.
How we spend money indicates our priorities, or what others—opponents, allies or customers—care about.
What does it mean when we or others do not take advantage of clear opportunities?
<View> <advantage> <and> <yet> <no> <advance> <is>
Your enemy sees an advantage but does not advance.<Weary> <also>
His men are tired.
We all have limitations in how much effort we can put into our moves. Everyone needs to rebuild and recover as we or our positions are worn down. When we do not pursue opportunities, it means that we are too worn down to use them.