Sun Tzu is one of the most well-known military figures in history, yet instead of being remembered as simply a prophet, king, or empire challenger, he is recognized as a strategic mastermind. Sun Tzu was born in 500 B.C., and lived during the Warring States period, a time when China was divided into many different states that constantly fought with one another; the combat normally involved large armies. Although Sun Tzu lived at a time when the traditional methods of warfare were no longer feasible, instead of following the old ways, he developed a completely new concept of strategy and tactics that would eventually be the foundation of an entirely new system of warfare.
Sun Tzu's ultimate goal in life was not just to find ways to win his battles, but to develop a way for mankind to better understand the idea of victory itself. The work that Sun Tzu created in this pursuit would go on to dramatically change the way all future generations approached warfare, as they would eventually incorporate the philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism into their understanding of strategy and tactics. By taking the military knowledge he gained through observation and thoughtful contemplation of military strategy and turning it into a philosophy, Sun Tzu has given us a new understanding and a pathway to the achievement of intellectual and emotional mastery.
What Sun Tzu Refused to Ignore
The approach of most commanders during his time was to gather armies as large as possible, build walls as thick as possible, and then to storm head first into the most bloody, and destructive battle with all that they had. The premise for Sun Tzu was to begin where his contemporaries would only ever avoid as it was so far beyond their comprehension, in the fear-inducing, awe-inspiring reality of being able to achieve victory without fighting at all.
This belief in victory by purely physical means is comforting; we want to believe that the hardest working and longest fighting people will always be victorious, and that all forms of conflict will be a direct competition of wills that will be entirely consumed in energy and effort. We crave the certainty, security, and straightforwardness of speedy resolution. We wish for our issues to have a simple enough solution that we can easily overcome. So, even the most educated individuals of Sun Tzu's time still clung to this idea that warfare was simply a numerical game of courage and fortitude.
Therefore, when Sun Tzu makes the first accurate statement of his philosophy, that the study of military operation is a matter of life and death and must be treated with the utmost seriousness and not with the goal of increasing the number of lives lost to fight more, but the extremely limited objective of fighting less. And here is where this statement is going to seem contradictory to his contemporaries. It is going to generate confusion and disorientation for them.
