Book Review: The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I read The Art of War in 2012. Back then I could not grasp various facets of this classic text. Sun Tzu a Chinese warrior philosopher compiled this amazing book 2000 years ago. The book revolves around strategy and conflict management. To date the importance of this book has not diminished. From interpersonal to international level Sun Tzu talks about victory without combat. This according to him is only possible through proper understanding of physics, politics and psychology of conflict.

The commentaries in this translation by Thomas Cleary are selected from a collection of eleven interpreters. These commentaries elaborate on various aspects which include secrecy, importance of misdirection as an essential art, strategy formation, awards, punishments and psychology of soldiers.

Some of the central ideas of Tzu are:

·         “A military force has no constant formation, water has no constant shape. The ability to gain victory by changing and adapting according to the opponent is called genius”.

·         “The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become a captive”.

·         “Only a brilliant ruler or a wise general who can use the highly intelligent for espionage is sure of great success.”