I hate war but I am a student of war let me explain [Music] [Music] about 25 years ago I read in a newspaper an interview with a professional boxer unfortunately I forgotten the name of that athlete but what he said about the act of fighting made very much sense to me when he was asked how he prepared for a fight he quoted from an old Chinese book and that is the first time I heard about this book which is called the art of war most probably written by a Chinese gentleman called Sun Tzu who lived in the fifth century BC ever since I have been fascinated by his work I studied it and I tried to apply some of its principles when I was still fighting martial art competitions which is a very long long time ago but as soon as you read his book you realize that next to the physical component of war and very far away from the horrible part where bodies clash on the battlefield and people get killed there is a psychological and a philosophical part to it this part is all about reading your opponent knowing yourself and estimating correctly the circumstances one of the essential parts of the thinking of sensu is to overcome others armies without fighting and that is according to him the best of skills this little booklet with only 13 chapters provides a unique perspective on war on strategy and on leadership throughout the centuries this book has been very influential to a wide variety of people like military strategists but also business leaders world leaders and athletes and I find this book to be useful for almost every human being when we are faced with an adversary or an opponent this can be in business in sports as leaders of our communities or as private persons the art of war is not the only one of its kind there are actually many Chinese books on warfare and on strategy that date back to the beginning of the Western timeline and I'm sure I'm gonna make another episode on one of those books too after I read the art of war several times I was so impressed by the insides that it provided that has started to search for an equivalent order on war in the Western world and there are several Machiavelli for example wrote a book with the same title the art of war by Machiavelli but that is a rather technical book that is very much related to the circumstances of war in his hometown and in the time that he lived so what he writes is not so universal so maybe this book is more a historical document on warfare and there are of course others but what a book that could be seen as an equivalent to the great work of sin soon in the Western world is the book on war written by Carl von Clausewitz and it was published by his widow in 1832 both authors are military strategists and between the writing of these two books is about two thousand years and they both have been very influential in the military theory in the east and in the West and they continue to be influential even today what I found fascinating is that there are major differences in the way of thinking about war and winning between the west and the east it's a difference that I experienced myself many times when I was advising Western and Chinese companies to do business with each other what is interesting is that both authors start from almost the same starting point for example sunsoo opens with the sentences war is of vital importance to the state it is a matter of life and death and that's why it has to be studied thoroughly for clouds of its States war is a serious means war is no pastime it is no more joy in daring and winning no place for irresponsible enthusiasts it is a serious means to a serious end from this and many other parts in these books we learn that both authors do not idolize or glorify war thank God they don't but rather they see as a serious matter with serious consequences they see it as something that is part of every state and every country and they see it as a part of life in general and therefore they both want to provide the theory on how to deal with this seemingly unavoidable condition although they agree on several points their theories do diverse significantly for example from clouds of its compares war as a duel he states that war is nothing but a jewel on a large scale and then he continues each try through physical force to compel the other to do his will these confrontational moments and the use of physical force are essential to war according to food Clausewitz the starting point of since earth is different he states that the best policy in war is to prevent the enemy's strategy so instead of attacking the enemy which is sometimes unavoidable he prefers to attack the strategy of the enemy instead and this is essential to the art of Chinese strategy which is not only applied in military settings but also in business now how does it work how do you attack the strategy of your opponent well this is done by the use of stratagems stratagems are actions that are based on deception you can see your true intention and instead you attack the intention of your opponent this might sound a bit confusing so let me repeat number one you do not attack your opponent number two instead you attack the intention of your opponent through the years and spending a lot of time as Chinese people I learned that this is the very essence of the art of war now let's make this very concrete with an example [Music] imagine there is a man in the fifth century BC let's call this man mr. Corin let's say he had a great reputation and he is widely respected this man lives in a village let's call this village a and he learns that this village will be attacked by a king from another city and let's call the city VIII now mr. Khan wants to prevent this from happening he however also understands that his village can not defend themselves against such a strong opponent therefore mr. Cohen who is very aware of his reputation sends one of his students to the king of another city let's call the city see his student tells the king of C that his master wants to warn him because his master heard that the city B is preparing to attack city see the king of C is of course very grateful for this information from a very trustworthy source and he asked the student of mr. Khan what his master would advise in such a situation the student then said my master advises you to attack the city B first because they will not see that coming so what happens next the king of C attacks the city of the king of B takes him by surprise and wins the battle what is now the new situation the city a of mr. Kong is safe from harm the king of C is victorious and even more powerful than before and mr. Kong has a great new and very powerful ally the king of C who is very grateful for his help and his advice so Kong's village is even more safe than before mr. Cohen won without a fight this is an example of the use of deception in warfare there are so many books written about such cases and of course there is a moral dimension to it as well but maybe that's something for another episode what is now relevant for the two books disgust is that there is a very big difference in the way of thinking of western people and of Chinese people when it comes to winning to strategy and leadership in the book on war by Clausewitz he also talks about stratagems but is absolutely not in favor of it in book 3 chapter 10 he describes stratagems as almost something inferior and that should only be used as a last resource if one is confronted with a desperate situation so that is a very big difference from the thinking of since ooh who puts the stratagems almost at the center of his thinking i started this episode we're saying that I'm a student of war but that doesn't mean that I like war actually the opposite is true I like to think however that war and peace are like two sides of the same coin peace and stability does not come by itself it is hard work and war I think it can often be avoided if we know how to do this so learning to maintain peace and stability and to avoid or to deal with war is I think therefore worthwhile to study as a psychologist I often see people that have a rather limited skillset to deal with conflict and often they go for the direct confrontation and this brings often verbal and even physical violence with it so the art of war is a book to learn how to fight because we have a dispute with our neighbor or one of our kids is bullied at school or we are facing as a business leader a very aggressive competitor then knowing how to overcome these opponents without a fight as Sun Tzu advises might be a good alternative to the direct confrontation that is maybe used too often to conclude if we take the functional book graph then the book of von Clausewitz on war put I would put it in the category gems of insights because it gives us very specific information on warfare and on battle and it is a rather theoretical book so not very practical it is also a classical work and too many it is the fundamental book on the theory of warfare as a business leader I have learned some valuable insights from this book for example how to deal with friction when you try to execute a strategy however I found this book very difficult to read it was originally written in German and from Clausewitz worked many years on it he started to work on this book in 1816 and he worked on it on and off always interrupted by military campaigns and unfortunately he could never finish the work the book contains many very long sentences and also has quite some contradictions in it it is obvious that he did not have the time to do a final and full revision of his manuscript a year after his death in 1832 his wife Mary phone blew published the book it is thanks to her that his great work wasn't lost to mankind and again it is 700 pages and it's worthwhile to read if you're very interested in the topic but it's very hard to get through it in contrast the art of war I would put it in the category of hammer books because it's very specific in the provided information on war and on dealing with conflicts but it also gives very practical advice and advice that is digestible now don't expect to get a one two three steps guide on how to deal with conflict remember this book is written in a fifth century BC instead I always advise to read this book maybe several times and always underline the sentences that triggers your mind and makes you think maybe your underline a sentence because you really don't like what he's saying remember it's all about war and winning or you underline something because you have a new insight that that shows you why you can't win from your current opponent or maybe underline a sentence because you start to think how you should maybe do things differently then use these underlined sentences to reflect on your current situation and think of how you could apply the new insights from this book the book is only about 60 pages and as only 13 chapters but it is a kind of information that only becomes tangible and applicable when we really take the time to reflect on what we have read and finally when it comes to the art of war there are many translations out there and it's hard to say which one is the best because they all have their advantages if you want to pick a translation then you could do two things first maybe for your first book on the art of war do not pick a literal translation from the Chinese language because then the text looks more like an abstract poem and it's really hard to study from that and second take a translation that comes with an introduction on the time and the context in which this book was written that will help a lot in understanding the text you can find the references of the books that I have in the notes I hope you enjoyed this episode of both books and bones and as always your remarks and thoughts and ideas are very welcome please subscribe to my vlog or my youtube channel if you like to stay up to date on the next episodes of Baal books and Dawn's thank you [Music] [Music] you