Sun Tzu 's The Art Of War

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (Sunzi bingfa) is a remarkably lucid, compact and sometimes enigmatic treatise. Although the main purpose was to be applied in war, its philosophies can be applied in any activity involved with conflicts or competition. Written in the sixth century BCE, it emphasises the role of military force in international relations: “Warfare is the greatest affair of the state, the basis of life and death, the Way (Tao) to survival or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analysed.” Several points about The Art of War are frequently noted. First, the text appears to suggest ambivalence about employing violence: “One who excels at employing the military, subjugates other people’s armies without

Today, no one seems to give much value of literary works or reading. Not because it doesn’t give anything beneficiary, but because not everyone had the urged to at least finish a book. We now live in a world where social medias almost dominates our daily activities. It’s unlikely to have a place for us to consume a non-fiction or fiction book. As absurd as it sounds but that’s how people often think. We now live in an egalitarian society, where everyone is given the freedom and right of its own.

Frank Shepard Fairey, also known as Shepard Fairey, was born on February 15 1970 in Charleston South Carolina. Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator and founder of the skateboarding company Obey. Fairey was first noticed for his art work of “Andre The Giant,” creating stencils that he would put on posters and stickers that he put up all over cities and hand them out to people. In 2008 his art took off with his “HOPE” poster for the Presidential Campaign which featured the face Barack Obama on it. After becoming successful was faced with negative criticism an accusation from Mannie Garcia that could cripple and artists integrity. Fairey created another piece, “Make Art Not War”, to show his views on the government and his idea of change. Fairey uses graphic styles of the 20th century, Mixing the boundaries between high and commercial art, and is shown through his type of art-work. Fairey Is passionate about his views about expressing his views the government, his influence from 1940’s war art, and combining cultures of graffiti, pop art, and the Marxist Theory.

An artist's job is to interpret, and express the aspects of life in a creative fashion. War has played a big part in shaping our human history, and many artists have portrayed their feelings about art through paintings, and even monuments. Whether it be to show; the joy of victory, the sorrow of defeat, or to educate the public on the gory realities of war. Art about war can also show us a great amount of history of the kinds of weapons that were used at the time. It is necessary for artists to interpret, and criticize all aspects of life; even ones as tragic as war, It can make the public more aware of what goes on in times of war.

This essay will explore the influences of Sun Tzu in the Second World War. Sun Tzu (544 – 496 BC) was a Chinese general and strategist in times of the Zhou dynasty. His techniques, even today are highly respected. The teachings of Sun Tzu were used not only in Asia and Europe but have also been applied today by the western society.

The Second Sino-Japanese War was happening because Japan wanted to get more of China’s outer

To look at how Lao Tzu’s philosophy influenced Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War, one must understand the point of view in context with the writers. Eastern philosophy is much different from those of its Western counterparts. The Western world has more of an inner focus on “determinism and moral responsibility.” Ones reasoning, logic, and ethics play a role with the decisions they make. While the Eastern world has more of a focus on the foundational beliefs of “fundamental connectedness”, and “personal liberation”. The

Sun Zi’s Art of War was written by Sun Wu since 2500 years ago. In Sun Zi’s Art of War, chapter 4 there is a military formation or strategy used by the generals that is those who are skillful in warfare can ensure that they will not be defeated by the enemy, but will not be able to ensure victory over the enemy. This mean that people who had been trained for long time and become an expert with full knowledge or skill in that field then it will help them to protect themselves not be defeated by the competitors in any time, this only can help them stay in an invincible position but not to take over the place of competitors. Therefore, it said that one you may know how to win but not necessarily to win the competitors. In the past, the strategy

The Second Sino-Japanese War (formerly addressed as the “China Incident”) took place in China from 1937 until 1945. In this war, the Japanese sought out China’s abundance of raw materials and land. The two forces, China and Japan, battled over the control of said materials and most importantly, land. Before this, China was mainly concerned with the civil war (which was on and off until 1950, years after the Second Sino-Japanese war) between nationalists (Kuomintang party lead by Chiang Kai-Shek) and communists (Communist Party of China lead by Mao Zedong). This war also served as an introduction to the Pacific end of World War II.

The most impressive idea in this book is what master sun mentioned in chapter six, he said, “Military formation is like water” and then illustrates that “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” (94). From my understanding about this sentence, he is trying to say that the strategy of the war is a bit like water, there is no fixed form for it, and the way to win is that always change strategy according to enemy's behavior. At the same time, this thought could also be explained this way, confuse your opponents, once they cannot find your weakness and trace, then you are invincible. In short, avoiding conflict with opponents

When we look back at history, the driving force of change in the world usually comes in the form of war. By looking at the art of ancient civilizations we can understand how their culture viewed the different aspects of war and battles. Two great examples of art that represents a civilization’s view of warfare are the Standard of Ur and the Alexander Mosaic.

Sun Tzu understood the nature of war as “the province of life or death,” and a “matter of vital importance to the state.”1 I agree. In my own experience, war awakens your primordial instincts and strips you of your self-rationalizations. Sun Tzu defined the character of war when he wrote, “water has no constant form, there are in war no constant conditions.”2 Accordingly, Sun Tzu’s principals of war offer a framework adequate to explain the nature and character of 21st century warfare, which I rationalize as a near-continuous battle of ideologies fought through asymmetric means to advance the values and interests of state and non-state actors.

The Second Sino-Japanese war began on July 7th, 1937 and ended on September 9th, 1945. It was a military conflict which was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. As part of the struggle against fascism, Japan invaded China. It is clear that, due to the restriction of its natural resources, Japan tried to increase by robbing resources from other countries. Japan used the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. Manchuria was an enormous region that consisted of three provinces- Liaoning in the south, Jilin in the middle and Heilongjiang in the north. In 1905, when Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war, Russia, which used Manchuria for business and

This was a tactic in attempts to keep the enemy guessing and to cause the enemy to feel threatened and unsafe. It was a good strategy to trick the enemy into always thinking and feeling that an attack would happen at any given moment, something that would cause the enemy to develop stress or become restless with less chances of obtaining a sense of peace or assuming that an attack was not going to happen. If one was able to master the technique of deception, then it was likely that one will increase the chances of victory. In addition, it was crucial to become aware and analyze the enemy in order to determine if a planned and deceptive attack would work. Or, it was better to avoid confrontation if it was determined that the enemy would be stronger. Sun Tzu took into consideration that pacifism was also an important option which would benefit future and better planned attacks. He also made it clear from the beginning of his documentation that he took analytical measurements into account and the one that made more precise calculations than the enemy, one will win the war.

The “Art of War” and “De Re Militari” two military treatises were written one continent and around five centuries apart by authors that came from two vastly different backgrounds and cultures. Both authors penned treatises intended to inform and educate commanders about war yet the underlying theme is not victory but to ensure the survivability of their soldiers in battle. Sun Tzu and Vegetius differ on their ideas of this specifically on the relationship the military holds between the governing body as well as relations with the civilian population. However, what they do come together on ideas of efficient battle that minimizes Soldier loss as much as possible.