MEDITATIONS: SUN TZU’S THE ART OF WAR, CHAPTER EIGHT

Variations in Tactics

There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed. (Sun Tzu 77)

. . .

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:

Recklessness, which leads to destruction;

cowardice, which leads to capture;

a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;

a delicacy of honor, which is sensitive to shame;

oversolicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble. (78)

Just as the path to victory is multitudinous, so too is the path to failure. It may even be argued that the roads to self-destruction are far more numerous than those which lead toward success. After all, it is almost also far easier to destroy than it is to build. Likewise, for every right answer to any question, there are infinitely more wrong answers.

As in war as in all things—there are mistakes from which there is no recovery. These errors must be seen and avoided ahead of time, just as the habits which bring rise to them must be broken before they manifest themselves. Ultimately, this culminates in one’s ability to vary his tactics, his approaches, his methods, and his modes of thought.

To be capable of variance is the same as having options. For one to have options, he must be at liberty to choose. To choose, one must maintain two things, position and discipline. From a position of no leverage, advantage, or support, the will is worthless. No amount of exertion can make the impossible possible. On the other hand, an advantageous opportunity is wasted if it is not taken. He who cannot control himself at the right moment is not different than the man who can’t control himself at all.

Thus does the good general, the good manager, the good father, and the good individual temper and bolster the extremes of his courage. He fosters patience and humility enough to reject idealism. He cultivates detachment for when his means cannot reach his ends. Thus does he open doors for himself by neither boxing himself in nor letting himself run rampant without walls to begin with. He considers multiple strategies, and he puts them into practice, implementing each of them as the context allows—for merely repeating what led to past successes will eventually fail as the landscape and opponent changes. Then, the general will have trained himself to be adaptive.

Therefore, variance is actually a preservative measure, not merely an assertive one.

Hence, in the wise leader’s plans, considerations of advantages and of disadvantages will be blended together.

If our expectation of advantage be tempered in this way, we may succeed in accompanying the essential part of our schemes. If, one the other hand, in the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune. (77)

One ought not assume his tactics come without drawbacks. The wise general is not only temperate but prudent. He recognizes that no strategy comes without disadvantages, and so he actively seeks to identify said disadvantages in his plans. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; a strategy is only useful if it works when one needs it. What can go wrong eventually will go wrong. This is all common wisdom, though it is easily forgotten when expediency, glory, or treasure tempt one to believe he can dispense with changes.

But adaptation is not optional. One must vary his tactics, his methods, and even his goals just to protect himself from becoming incapable of acting in accord with what reality requires. He who stretches and exercises his muscles each day remains strong and pliable even into old age. He who refuses to adapt his life to allow for such this grows stiff and incapable of altering his direction. He will inevitably go down the road which must not be followed.

Sun Tzu. The Art of War, translated by William Ridgeway, Sweetwater Press, 2008.