# 19

THE KNOWLEDGE OF MASTERING WARFARE AND RETHINKING BATTLE

STRATEGIES IN LIGHT OF SUN TZU’S ART OF WAR

A Term Paper

Presented to

Faculty of Arts and Letters

University of Santo Tomas

Españ a, Manila

In Partial of Fulfilment

Of the Requirements in

PHL210

Chinese Philosophy

Gonzales, Timothy Joseph C.

19 / 4PHL1

November 24, 2017

 Sun Tzu’s Art of War serves as a guidebook for aspiring and current
generals or commanders of an army, it practically tells us the right and
appropriate military strategies and tactics to be executed before, during and
after a battle. The book perfectly reminds the leaders of the country and its
generals, to be critical and be smart for every plan that they are going to
execute during in times where a nation is in conflict or war with another
nation, for it might cause the victory they are hoping for or it may bring more
problems and further tragedies to what they are currently solving in. For Sun
Tzu, the victory in all battles, wars and conflicts are not always won through
the enormous size of an army, the advanced equipment and weaponry of a
nation or the numerous skills that are possessed by the soldiers, but rather all
victories in all kinds of battles are won by the strong intuition of the general
and his ability to use all sorts of intelligence and resources that are available
to him, hence Sun Tzu said, “All kinds of warfare are all based on deception”. 1
Victories and Glorious battles are not just won by physical strength, but also
won by the ability of the generals and leaders of a nation to foresee and
predict the future actions and movements that will be done by their enemies,
therefore, intelligence and strength must be balanced and utilized properly
that will be also the source and a good foundation of an army whose will and
dream is to defeat the enemy, but before an army can gather the sufficient
physical and intelligence strength that it needs, an army of course before it is
formed should be well-supplied not only by the ammunition and weaponry
that it requires, but also the necessary provisions that it needs for the
sustenance of the morale of its soldiers like food, clothing and water, without
these, an army would already have been defeated even before going into the
battle, therefore an intelligent and smart commander of the army must
prepare carefully all that it needs before it goes to war, but before we go
deeper into his words and thoughts, let us first have a brief history about Sun
Tzu and the history of his work, The Art of War.

1
Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles. Sun Tzu on the Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in the World. Champaign,
IL: Project Gutenberg, 1994: 3.
 The emergence of this great general coming from the state of Ch’i 2
happened during the period of warring states in China. It was at this period
when different states in China was contending and fighting for the control,
power and influence over the country, it was at this violent phenomenon
where great generals from the different places and states had risen, leaders
from each state had recognized that winning the war is not only heavily
dependent upon how strong and advance your army and its logistics could be,
but most vital and essential key of winning the war is having an intelligent and
strong-willed general and no other general besides that of Sun Tzu, who could
be the most perfect representation of how a general should be, how he should
function, and how he should protect both the sovereign and its people. One
thing that we should be grateful to Sun Tzu was that, he never chose to keep to
himself all the knowledge, wisdom and intelligence he had learned, gathered
and experienced in the course of his campaign of battles, but rather he chose
to hand down all of his thoughts in the next succeeding generations, and these
words and thoughts of Sun Tzu is indeed have lived throughout the ages and
his knowledge about mastering the war would absolutely still continue to live
out a thousand years more, so it is in my outmost great experience and
gratitude to discuss some of his words and thoughts to help us understand on
how to properly, address or fight battles and the possible ways of attaining it
at a smaller costs, because as we all know winning a battle is not only
measured to how damage and ravage we have done to the enemy but winning
a battle can also be attained in some peaceful ways through negotiation or a
pact between two sides to not anymore cause severe havoc but resolve it like
civilized men.
In the Chapter 1 of the book, Sun Tzu compares warfare to an art, for
him, all forms of warfare should not be treated only what it should be like
slaughtering dozens of enemies, or spilling blood and razing properties of the
enemy but warfare requires a huge amount of creativity and a unique and
critical way of thinking on how to depose your enemy of its throne, to disrupt
2
"Who Was Sun Tzu? – Sun Tzu Strategies." Sun Tzu Strategies | Management Strategies and Training –
Sun Tzu Strategies. Accessed November 23, 2017. http://www.suntzustrategies.com/about/who-was-sun-tzu/.
and sabotage his alliance with other nations and most of all, to cripple or
destroy his entire army, therefore planning before going to war is a primordial
need and essential to achieve victory and success in all battles.
According to Sun Tzu, the art of war must consider five factors: The
Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, The Commander and Method and Discipline. 3For
him, a wise general must have all the knowledge of these five for without it,
defeat surely awaits him and his army but if he poured his efforts in
understanding this five surely victory awaits him.
The first principle, which is the Moral Law, tells us that there should be
a harmonious relationship among the ruler and its people, for in this
relationship where he will gain respect and loyalty among his people, thus if
his people treat him with respect and acts in accordance to whatever the ruler
says, stability across the nation will be perfectly maintained. The presence of
undoubtful and never-ending loyalty will begin here, people will never
question his orders instead they will obey him, people will never abandon him
despite of dangers and misery, and people will fight for him whatever the
costs and risks maybe. The foundation of a loyal and strong-willed army will
begin in the hands of the leader of a nation by putting up a strong bond
between him and his people.
The Heaven and Earth, For Sun Tzu, is the geography and the weather
and climate of the enemy’s location or perhaps the general must be
knowledgeable enough to understand how seasons such as winter or summer
may affect the morale of the soldiers, or what would be the impact of the
heavy precipitation of rain into his soldiers, would it gain him an advantage
over his enemy or it would only inflict him disadvantage with a heavy costs?
The general then must not only invest his time and intelligence in amassing
strong troops and advance equipment but also he must also be wise if he will
gain an advantage in the topography of a definite location such as how many

3
Ibid., 3.
mountains, rivers, slopes that could give his troops a definite advantage and
range over the enemy.
The next principle, which is the commander, may pertain both to the
general himself or the sub-commanders of his army. The general, in all cases,
should be the embodiment of strength, bravery, courage, wisdom, sincerity
and benevolence. 4The qualities mentioned are not for his greater glory, but
rather he must possess it in order for his soldiers to be inspired also of his
great character as a leader, for he will be the fulcrum, source and model of his
soldiers in order to win the battles.
Lastly, method and discipline must be practiced among the soldiers.
Without the discipline being implemented among the soldiers, there is a large
tendency for them not to obey or even to conspire to overthrow the general
himself. Discipline is very important in the military for them to know the value
of their duty, without the recognition and proper implementation of discipline
among the soldiers, they could easily be routed by the enemy during battle or
even they would lost the confidence to fight during wars. The proper
discipline not only consists in training the soldiers to be brave and obedient
but also the proper method on how to allocate the resources that a nation has
to its military expenditures5, without the proper allocation of funds such as
creating roads for a faster mobility of transport among the supplies needed by
the army, the purchase of necessary provisions needed by the army and the
supply of ammunition and armament, the military would collapse even before
it can go into battle.
The five factors as discussed by Sun Tzu are the necessary principles
that the general of an army must first need to understand and be critical
about, for this is where his whole campaign would revolved in, and basically
this is where most of the commanders would fail, the failure to understand
one component of each of the five would lead to a necessary defeat. However,
4
Ibid., 2.
5
Co, Alfredo P. The Blooming of a Hunderd Flowers: Philosophy of Ancient China. Manila: Ust Publishing
House, 2009: 212.
the perfect laying of plans does not end there; a general may already have the
stable and strong army together with the full support of the ruler and of the
people, the proper and well-perfect execution of the attack must also be
considered. You may be well-equipped with all of the knowledge that you
have about your army and yourself but then, if you lack the knowledge about
your enemy then surely, defeat awaits you in the battlefield.
All warfare is based on deception.6 According to Sun Tzu, is where
successful battles come from, the ability to make your enemy fall into your lies
and the belief that you are weak and outnumbered. For Sun Tzu, if the general
possess the skill of master strategist and a great tactician, he must first have
the enough intelligence and information gathered about his enemy in order
for him to study very well the proper tactics that he will be using against his
army. The information gathered should not only be limited to the strengths
and weaknesses of the enemy’s army but must also include the information of
the general’s attitude, characteristics, how he acts against his men, how he
commands his men and how he portrays himself to his men. By doing this, the
general could then begin properly plan of how his attack would be, given all of
the information that he has, he would then have the option of fighting down
the enemy not only by the physical way, but also he could also test his enemy
by his own metal strength. The proper execution of deception into your
enemy is to make him confuse about the movements of your army, to make
him believe that you are few but truly you have many, to make him believe
that you are routing but only regrouping and reinforcing, and to make him
believe that you are defeated but truly, you are preparing.
Upon reading only the Chapter 1, I can now truly believe that war is an
art, it is not simply deeply rooted on the amount of men that you have or how
much ammunition that you have, it also consists on how creative and smart
you can be as a commander, the illusion and lies that you can show to your

6
Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles. Sun Tzu on the Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in the World, 3.
enemies and pretending that you possess a weak and small army but beneath
all of this, is a well-prepared and intelligent plan in which its intentions is to
defeat the enemy with a swift and thunderlike blow. It is truly we can say now,
that strength is useless without the proper of application of force, no matter
how strong and big our armies can be if we cannot even control or even
command them in the right way, our armies would collapse even before we
face the enemy. In this chapter, Sun Tzu tries to give us the importance of
preparing and planning, a general who prepares is one who prepares for
victory and a general who does not prepare is one who prepares for failure.
War is inevitable, Indeed, but then Sun Tzu calls us to his advice that if
war could be possibly avoided, we must avoid it, not only it creates casualties,
chaos and destruction between nations, it will also exhaust the available
resources of one’s nation leading to a civil war perhaps, if a ruler intends to
wage war against a nation, the attack that will be done by his troops must be
swift and should not be prolonged by any means necessary, if it comes to the
circumstance that the battle would take longer as what is expected it would
lead to the decline of the morale of his troops, the diminishing supplies and
ammunition and the result would be great loss at the expense of the lives of
his men, therefore, preparing should be necessary but a great reminder was
also left to us by Sun Tzu, never call for an attack or a war if time is not against
your side.
There is one thing great and unique about the thoughts and
understanding of warfare of Sun Tzu that we all would agree, was that he was
able to perfectly and meticulously think about all the resources that a general
can use to gain an advantage over his enemy. First he told us about the
intelligent capability of the general to foresee and predict ahead of what are
the possible circumstances that they may face in the battle, Second, his ability
to inspire his men and rise their morale for the battle that will face and now,
with combination of the both, the ability to command his army in a position
that will gain them the most advantage over the enemy with the use of his
brilliant strategy and soldiers who are willing to die for him and for their
country, Sun Tzu tells us nothing can be more greater and fearsome with this
kind of army.
For Sun Tzu, victory cannot only be won by fighting but also without
fighting is a battle won. The loss of good men and the destruction of various
cities can be spared, only if a general recognizes the strategy on how to make
his enemy subdue and surrender without even a single blood being spilled.
Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is
to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and
destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an
army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a
detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.7

Sun Tzu would like to propose a style of warfare wherein men would
not have the need to draw their swords and shields in order to win, for him
the best way of gaining victory over an enemy is to capture his territory
without even killing any of his soldiers. But the question is how? Sun Tzu did
not really specified ways on how to achieve this, but he mentioned some
general ways on how to attain this strategy, and one is by merely surrounding
the city or the army of the enemy if the general’s army outnumbers the enemy
at a larger rate. Fear and tremble would be put into the enemy’s eyes knowing
that they are outmanned by the general’s overwhelming force, thus forcing
them to surrender even before the battle begins. However, these are not only
the ways on how to subdue your enemy, but it can also be done by cutting
down the supply routes of the enemy towards the city and by this tactic, you
would starve their men and without the physical sustenance needed by the
body, soldiers will be unable to fight and thus, the army of the enemy will be
forced to hand over their position to the general. Sun Tzu here also sees a
great opportunity that if a city is captured on its original state and the army
intact, maintaining social and political stability on that region would be more
7
Ibid., 6.
easy and the army that has been captured could be used as an additional
recruitment to the general’s army since they are left with no choice, and more
importantly, the city that has been captured can provide the army with the
supply they needed to continue their campaign if it is necessary, thus the use
of violent force such as destruction of both the armies and the city should be
the last resort of any general who is in command if diplomacies between two
nations are to fail. The additional reason why Sun Tzu wanted a peaceful siege
to happen in a city and a victory without a blood being spilled between two
parties is that a wise general must learn the value of the number of men he
has, if he is that wise enough he will try to avoid any great losses in his side
and would always find a way to cut the losses of his men and strive for a way
in which his victory would be still guaranteed without any loss or fewer
losses. However, if a ruler then tends to content that all citizens and the
soldiers of the enemy should be killed and the city should be burned to the
ground, the wise general must stand and reasoned with him. Sun Tzu then
turns into a somewhat political issue here that rulers of the nation must never
confuse themselves on how to govern the kingdom and how to govern an
army8 and Sun Tzu would like also to imply the notion of rectification of
names by Confucius, to do only the duty that is imposed into you and for this
matter, the general should have the decision what to do about his army or
even the enemy’s army since he is far better knowledgeable about what to do
at the event if they have already defeated the enemy. However, Sun Tzu
would not like also to imply that the ruler should not do anything about
military matters, but rather he must all be wise, critical and intelligent about
he will do and what will be his decisions for his army and the enemy’s army
and city if they are already defeated. The ruler should never let his ignorance
about military strategy rule his decisions as a leader, but instead a wise leader
must consult first his counsel and of course, the general himself hence, a
harmonious relationship should be established and a strong bond must be
maintained between the ruler and his general must also take place, if both are
not in agreement the tendency is that the decisions that will be made will
8
Co, The Blooming of a Hundred Flowers: Philosophy of Ancient China, 216.
either be unsuccessful or the outcome of the battle itself will only lead to the
defeat of the army. Both the general and the ruler of a nation must recognize
the positions and the ideas of each other, if this happens it would potentially
avoid confusion among soldiers who is to follow and it would refrain the army
from going into disarray and internal conflict, thus victory can only be achieve
from avoiding any forms of mistake.
In all of the chapters of the Art of War, Sun Tzu would always mention
the importance of knowing about our own strengths, weaknesses, limitations
and capabilities.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the
result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the
enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If
you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in
every battle.9

Sun Tzu had stressed out the importance first of knowing truly yourself
before leading an army and before entering into a battle, the purpose is to
prepare yourself whenever inevitable circumstances in the battlefield comes
out of hand such as the great loss of men, an ambush takes over your troops,
or when an event where the force of your enemy overwhelms you and your
army. Educating and knowing yourself through your own efforts is also the
way on how to learn more about yourself in which others can see but you
yourself cannot see because you are blinded by your own ego, by this process,
you will now then be able to separate the necessary qualities that you need to
possess as a general of the army and the qualities that you do not need in
becoming a leader of your army. Sun Tzu would like also to converse to us the
importance of the experiences of the general because it is in these experiences
where he ultimately picks up his fragments of identity and potentiality, it is
also through in these experiences where he gathers his strength and purge
9
Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles. Sun Tzu on the Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in the World, 8 .
down his weaknesses, the problems that he had encountered in his life and
the difficulties in which he had experienced before will mold him to a great
commander of the army, the past experiences then of the general will help him
gain an advantage not only over the enemy but also for himself because bigger
and more difficulty problems will be on the way whenever he is in a conflict or
in a war with his enemy, thus if he have already had experienced difficulties in
his life before and was able to resolve it by his own methods and solutions,
therefore, the problems and challenges that he will encounter also in the
battlefield will be not anymore a surprise to him and the pressure that he will
undergo whenever unexpected circumstances happens during the battle is
that he will be able to handle it smoothly, with calmness and great confidence
to solve it quickly.
In relation to these words of Sun Tzu, he also mentioned throughout his
book, the importance of not committing any mistakes during the phase of
preparing a strategic plan and executing the plan.
He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes
is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means
conquering an enemy that is already defeated. 10

These wise words of Sun Tzu can be interpreted in many ways and
many would say and ask, are we not entitled to commit no mistakes at all? Sun
Tzu of course would not say that, we are not perfect and all-knowing human
beings and we are always capable of making mistakes because that is exactly
the purpose of living in this life, to keep learning and educating ourselves in
the ways of life and to refrain ourselves from doing that same mistake again
because we have already learned the lesson from doing it. The point however
of Sun Tzu here is when we have committed a mistake and we repeat the same
mistake again without even thinking a second or a minute to reflect what
cause our decision or act to be wrong is when we will lead ourselves to our
own downfall or defeat, if we are going to use in the context of the military
10
Ibid., 10.
strategy, if a general insists on following the plan he established for a certain
objective and mission and the outcome is always the same which is to fail,
then the battle in the battlefield with the enemy is not what is wrong in there,
but rather it might be the plan he constructed or even the general himself who
lets his ego run over and disrupts the whole operation. Sun Tzu then, warns us
here that if a general of an army fails to learn from his past mistakes and
never accepts the defeat of the past and insists the same strategy that he had
been using for a long time, is already the beginning of his own defeat, this
defeat however, would continue until none of his men are alive, and without
an army, victory now would be surely impossible to achieve.
The Art of War is a military and strategic treatise and should ultimately
be examined through a strategic lens,11 thus the complexity it embodies
requires its readers to read it in a deeper sense unlike any other military
manuals that have been produced, the beauty of how the Art of War’s
unending knowledge and wisdom continues to flourish throughout in ages is
secretly hidden among the many collection of aphorisms and sayings that was
collected by Sun Tzu and he transformed these aphorisms and sayings it into a
poetry, and the beauty of the poetry is that the knowledge, intelligence and
wisdom that it contains is free, continuously flourishing, and forever living,
thus to treat the Art of War like a science can be already considered as an
utter failure.12 Sun Tzu’s Art of War is considered to be also the perfect
reflection of Chinese thought, 13 but more importantly the Art of War itself, is
heavily grounded on the concept of the Dao, 14 in which its nature of wisdom
and knowledge moves also like the wind, free from all constraints of the social
categories of the society and possesses a vividly picture of the world,
therefore in reading the Art of War of Sun Tzu, one has to cultivate the Dao 15
first, then by learning the concept of Dao, man will now have a complete grasp

11
Yuen, Derek. Deciphering Sun Tzu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014: 6.
12
Ibid., 100.
13
Ibid., 99.
14
Co, The Blooming of a Hundred Flowers: Philosophy of Ancient China, 211.
15
Ibid., 211.
of what truly the Sun Tzu’s Art of War intends to convey to its readers,
without having the full comprehension and understanding of what the Dao is,
man’s construction of knowledge and understanding of the Art of War could
be misled and corrupted.
In the midst of all these battle strategies and military tactics that Sun
Tzu had devised, he calls us to another contemplation and deep reflection
within ourselves, and that is to avoid war and maintain peace, after all he
would always mentioned that the best way to defeat the enemy is to win not
by destroying him and his army nor his city, but rather perhaps by making
peace with him through a friendly discourse and discussion. I think this is the
whole point of Sun Tzu after all, to make is realize that even though war in
inevitable we must prepare for it, but if there is a way on how to avoid it, we
must avoid it, since in all kinds of warfare that happened throughout the
history of mankind, there were no victors or winners, all those who
participated in those wars, only gained casualties and losses, and the best way
to defeat the enemy is not by attacking him, but by making him your friend or
ally, if all people would just do the same thing, perhaps our world would never
be again a battleground or a battlefield, but rather it is a place that we can
now call home for everyone.

Bibliography:
Primary Source:

Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles. Sun Tzu on the Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in
the World. Champaign, IL: Project Gutenberg, 1994.
Secondary Sources:

Book:

Yuen, Derek. Deciphering Sun Tzu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Co, Alfredo P. The Blooming of a Hunderd Flowers: Philosophy of Ancient China.

Manila: Ust Publishing House, 2009.

Hawkins, David. Sun Tzu and the Project Battleground: Creating Project
Strategy from "The Art of War". New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Michaelson, Steven. Sun Tzu for Execution: How to use the Art of War to Get
Results. Massachusetts : Adams Business, 2007.

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November 22, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sunzi.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Accessed November 22, 2017.

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