Comparison 19: Creativity

In this article, we again explain how The Art of War is secretly fleshed out by the I Ching.

This week we dive into the first stanza of the fourth section of chapter two.

Because of this, it is the intelligent commander’s duty to feed off the enemy.
Use a cup of the enemy’s food.
It is worth twenty of your own.
Win a bushel of the enemy’s feed.
It is worth twenty of your own.
The Art of War, Chapter 2, Section 4, Line 1-5

This makes perfect enough sense in translation, but there is more that comes from the I Ching. These references are “hidden” because they appear only as numbers. These numbers work as numerical amounts above, but they have more advice from the hexagrams of the I-Ching, which adds a deeper lesson for the more educated.

I Ching and Bagua

Since I explained in the previous article, which is available to the public, how the I Ching, its hexagrams, trigrams, and how it works as a predecessor to The Art of War, I will not repeat myself here. The eight trigrams of the Bagua are the opposing forces of nature.

Sun Tzu translated his version of these trigrams differently than others, but this is how all ancient Chinese used the Bagua. Each science maps its basic elementsas a different layer of meaning. The Bagua of Chinese medicine is different from the ones for feng shui, tai chi, various martial arts, the directions of the compass, the basic colors in art, and so on. But each science is related to all the others by the places of their elements in the Bagua.

Hexagram One

In this stanza, the I Ching reference is even more hidden because I translated Hexagram One not as the number “one” in “one cup” but as “a” in “a cup”.

The lines below are from the stanza above. Its second line is shown in two forms, the English translation and the English transliteration of the individual Chinese characters.

Use a cup of the enemy’s food.
<Food> <enemy> <one> <cup>
The Art of War, Chapter 2, Section 4, Line 2

The “one” refers to Hexagram One. This is what it looks like:

This is the most change-oriented hexagram, consisting of all solid lines, the lines of yin, advance, and visibility. This hexagram is known generally as “Creativity” and “Force.” It consists of the two trigrams meaning “climate,” a concept that means both physical and mental change. In Sun Tzu’s hierarchy, nothing is as powerful as the changes of climate. In our world, we see “creativity” as technological innovation and artistic inspiration. The ancient Chinese viewed it as a force of nature and, in a lesser form as a strategic method.

This hexagram is used in both this line discussing “food,” and in line four about “hay.” The creativity here is getting our resources from others. The character for “enemy” means “fellow prince” so the idea is broader than just our enemies. We must use our creativity to see how these sources might be used.

This hexagram is contrasted with Hexagram Twenty in line three and line five.

Hexagram Twenty

This is from the third line of this in Chinese characters:

It is worth twenty of your own.
<Equal> <our> <twenty> <cup,>
The Art of War, Chapter 2, Section 4, Line 3-4

Here is Hexagram Twenty.

This hexagram means “viewing” and“contemplation.” The trigrams from the Bagua mean “river” over “earth.” There is no mystery why. In Sun Tzu’s day, the only way to cultivate crops was using river irrigation. The hexagram portrays viewing a river flowing through cropland and contemplating it. Its basic advice is looking at the big picture, in this case, not only the needs of the army but the needs of the nation. That point is made clear in future stanzas of this chapter.

The question is: what change order should these stanzas be used? This order determines the advice, which comes from changing in one hexagram to another. In the previous stanza, Sun Tzy told us the change order by saying one goes to the other, This stanza does not. Changing from Hex One to Twenty gives different advice than changing from Twenty to One.. Fortunately, Sun Tzu guides us by saying “equals,” which suggests that both directions work. Let us see if that works here to create meaningful advice.

The advice from changing from 20 to 1 is about making decisions. The change at the bottom line, one, is a signal for impending mistakes and advice to use caution. Line two means we see from too narrow a perspective and the advice is to see the big picture. Line three means that we are missing other possible sources, of resources, and contemplation is viewing and required to see them. Line four means some people can help us see what we are missing and we can always find them.

The advice from the changing from HEX 1 to 20 is about taking action. Change The change at the bottom line, one, is a warning to use patience and wait for an opportunity. Line two means the opportunity will arise, consult those with experience about how to act. Line three says a constant devotion to your mission is needed so don’t get distracted by events that distract your focus. Line four say that, after successful action, new hidden opportunities will appear and making our choices among them must be guided by our mission.

Putting This into Context