Comparisons: Situations and Methods
The Art of War 8:1.1-13 As a general, you get your orders from the government.
This post continues our project explaining each stanza of Sun Tzu’s work. The English and Chinese quotes are from my award-winning translation, The Art of War and The Ancient Chinese Revealed. Basic translations are written from the narrow perspective of the opposing armies. The work in these articles focuses on the more general application of the Chinese philosophy. Start here for the book’s opening lines.
The thirteen lines discussed in this article are the first stanza in Section One of the short Chapter 8 of The Art of War. The general topic of this chapter is Adaptability, but its Chinese title is <Nine> <Changes>. The stanza starts with a couple general instructions. Then it lists the nine situations that demand specific responses. It end with an unending of the first line.
Mission
In the lines below, we summarize each Chinese character with a single English word shown in < > brackets. The line of Chinese is followed by an English sentence translation.
<All> <use> <war> <’s> <methods>
Everyone uses the arts of war.
Chinese often gives the general topic in the first line of a stanza. This line starts this chapter by reiterating the fact that competition is unavoidable. It is the same line that began the previous chapter. Competition is a universal state. Competition is comparison. We must compare alternatives to choose what is best.
What is the first consideration of the comparison we call competition?
<General> <endure> <order> <from> <monarch>
As a general, you get your orders from the government.
The Chinese character translated as <endure> here is funny. It emphasizes the point that the goal of the organization isn’t always the best from the view of someone in charge of competitive efforts. However, this <order> sets our priorities, our mission.
We join with others with whom we share values. We should not work with organizations whose values we do not understand or cannot share. We choose the organization and then we must accept the judgments of its leaders. If we cannot <endure> the leader’s priorities, we must find a different organization.
Judging Growth
<Join> <army> <masses> <crowd>
You gather your troops.
Popular missions create larger organizations but only if their Methods and Command are working. A organization that is making progress gathers more and more supporters over time. We should not choose organizations because it has a <crowd> of supporters, but its amassing more supporters is evidence that It is working externally.
The same is true of our personal lives. If our lives are getting better, and we are gathering more supporters, we are on the right track. If our lives are not getting better in terms of our goals—i.e. Mission—the problem is our Methods and Command, that is, our decision-making and the skills we are using.
We cannot blame the other two aspects of our position, our Ground or the Climate. Over time, we choose our Ground, and the methods of using it. The changes of Climate always create opportunities. The question is whether or not our Command can recognize the right opportunities and our Methods can use the ones we choose.
Bad Situations
<Ruined> <ground> <without> <sheltering>
On dangerous ground, you must not camp.
This is the first of nine lines that connect various types of ground to bad situations that we must recognize in order to use the proper Methods.
<Ruined><ground> is one of the nine common situations discussed in the later Chapter Eleven. It is ground that is blocked in some way by mountains, forests, water, etc. which are metaphors for other more generic forms of obstacles. The advice is that we cannot develop such places as permanent parts of our positions.
<Highway> <ground> <join> <harmony>
Where the roads intersect, you must join your allies.
<Highway> <ground> is another one of the nine common situations covered in Chapter Eleven. The general advice is that we use this type of situation to find allies.
<Break> <off> <ground> <without> <delay>
When an area is cut off, you must not delay in it.
<Break><off><ground> is one of the situations that we encounter when we are advancing our positions. It is covered in the chapter after the next, Chapter Nine about advancing. We must move as quickly as possible through this type of ground.
<Encircling> <ground> <then> <scheme>
When you are surrounded, you must scheme.
This is another form of ground discussed in Chapter Eleven, but the idea is referenced in many chapters. We need opening into which we can move. We do not want to box ourselves into positions with no opening to advnce.
<Death> <ground> <then> <battle>
In a life-or-death situation, you must fight.
This is the last and most dangerous form of ground discussed in Chapter Eleven. This is a situation where we must use all our resources to create a sustainable position.
Avoidable Situations
<Road> <has> <place> <not> <from>
There are roads that you must not take.
The list changes at this point, focusing on situations that we must avoid. Here, the lesson is that not all paths take us toward our goals.
<Army> <has> <place> <not> <fight>
There are armies that you must not fight.
This line echoes a lot of the earlier advice from Sun Tzu. <Fight> doesn’t mean conflict, however, it means using resources. There are both other opponents and positions that are not worth “fighting” for with our limited resources.
<City> <has> <place> <not> <attack>
There are strongholds that you must not attack.
<Attack> means advancing our position. The places that we seek to advance into are not the strongholds of others. Remember, our true competitive positions exist in the minds of others. We can only advance from our current, established positions into new positions that make sense based on our history.
<Ground> <has> <place> <not> <conflict>
There are positions that you must not defend.
Instead of seeking the positions of others, we seek positions that are open, those where we avoid conflict.
<Monarch> <command> <has> <place> <not> <accept>
There are government commands that must not be obeyed.
Our organizations can set the goal of winning a position into which we cannot be accepted. This is the greatest challenge to our adaptability.