Pre-Basic 21: Sun Tzu - The Art of War

I have been listening to "Sun Tzu - The Art of War". There are very basic principles in his writing. I checked out a book from the library called "Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare", by Mark McNeilly. (Link to Google Book) It has been interesting reading so far. He takes from Sun Tzu's 13 chapters and breaks it down into 6 major principles.

1. Win All Without Fighting: Achieving the objective without destroying it.
2. Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness: Striking where the enemy is the most vulnerable.
3. Deception And Foreknowledge: Winning the information war.
4. Speed And Preparation: Moving swiftly to overcome resistance.
5. Shaping The Enemy: Preparing the battlefield.
6. Character-Based Leadership: Leading by example.

The author uses examples from history to explain the relevance of each principle. I love it when authors or speakers are able to point out correct principles and then allow me to choose for myself how to use them. Reading this book has gotten me real excited about the history of war. I know that I can learn a lot from those past experiences. After all that is what the Book of Mormon is, the history of war with correct principles.

When talking about winning all without fighting he compares the western game of chess to the eastern game of go. The first starting out with a lot of pieces on the board, and it's object is to destroy each other and in the end usually there are very few pieces on the board. Go on the other hand starts out with an empty board, and in the end it is loaded with pieces. The winning color controls the losing team but has not destroyed them. They have just taken them over. So rather than destroying resources they are actually building resources. I like this strategy of war, but I am sure that Sun Tzu principles are just the base of what I will learn over the next few years.

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