Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Winning without Fighting is Supreme Strategy - 兵法

Like the Bible, the Tao Te Ching (道德經) acknowledges that a state’s leadership cannot always avoid war. Lao Tzu (老子) therefore believed a military triumph should be treated as a funeral as "wars" have proved it.

From Sun Tzu, a philosophy that can reconcile the way to fight a war with the Way of life. Sun Tzu quoted:-

"In the practice of the art of war, it is best to take the enemy’s country whole and intact. To shatter and destroy his country is inferior to this way. So, too, it is better to capture an army intact than to destroy it, better to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company intact than to destroy them. Hence to fight and win in all your battles is not the foremost excellence; to break the enemy’s resistance without fighting is the foremost excellence."[1]

Sun Tzu advocated winning without actual fighting. However, the pursuit of that idea though not always possible.

[1] Robert L. Cantrell (2003), Understanding Sun Tzu on The Art of War: "The Oldest Military Treatise in the World", USA, ISBN 0-9722914-0-7

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