The Art of War

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Wisdom Read in Timeless Fashion
Review: Sun Tzu's "Art of War" audiobook translated by Ralph D. Sawyer and performed by Joe Mantegna is an interesting little trip.

"Art of War" is broken up into "Lessons" which, at first blush, appear to be nothing more that contrite truisms. This is only amplified by Mantegna's deliberate and articulating cadence. However, it is both unfair and unwise to characterize the "Lessons" as contrite or as a collection of truisms. Calling the lessons contrite diminishes the fact that there should be a requisite amount of thought given to the words. The lessons are wisdom that ought not to be devoured but rather to be savored. For his part, Mantegna's delivery accentuates the fact that the lessons are to be savored as he delivers the lines of the lesson at a deliberate and steady pace. The "lessons" are also not truisms. Yes, it is true that the "lessons" are easy to read but history teaches us that the wisdom of the lessons are hard to master.

There is also some background historical material written by Ralph D. Sawyer following Mantegna's rendering of the "lessons." The historical materials are excellent but are unfortunate based upon their brevity.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Wisdom Read in Timeless Fashion
Review: Sun Tzu's "Art of War" audiobook translated by Ralph D. Sawyer and performed by Joe Mantegna is an interesting little trip.

"Art of War" is broken up into "Lessons" which, at first blush, appear to be nothing more that contrite truisms. This is only amplified by Mantegna's deliberate and articulating cadence. However, it is both unfair and unwise to characterize the "Lessons" as contrite or as a collection of truisms. Calling the lessons contrite diminishes the fact that there should be a requisite amount of thought given to the words. The lessons are wisdom that ought not to be devoured but rather to be savored. For his part, Mantegna's delivery accentuates the fact that the lessons are to be savored as he delivers the lines of the lesson at a deliberate and steady pace. The "lessons" are also not truisms. Yes, it is true that the "lessons" are easy to read but history teaches us that the wisdom of the lessons are hard to master.

There is also some background historical material written by Ralph D. Sawyer following Mantegna's rendering of the "lessons." The historical materials are excellent but are unfortunate based upon their brevity.

Rating:
Summary: A must read book for MBA students
Review: The Art of War was the speech of Chinese famous strategist Sun Zi (or Sun Tzu), who lived about 2500 years ago. The Art of War represents the earliest existing codification of military and political strategy, and is probably the most widely-read work on strategy in history. Sun Tzu's book is widely studied by the business and military communities today. At least seven different translations appeared in the last two decades alone, including an 'official' copy of the version used by the People's Liberation Army complete with Marxist dialectic and critique. Although The Art of War is about War, Sun Zi strongly advocates that the best way is 'win without a war.' 'The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.' (Ch. 3). If you know both you and your enemy, you can win all the war; if you only know one side, you only have 50% to win the war; if you know nothing of both sides, you will lose all the war. In the above speech, we can find how important that the information is. In management science, a model built on little information seldom can solve the problem in our real life. So whenever we plan to do a project, the first thing first is to get information (as complete as possible). To get vital information, Sun Zi recommended five usages of spying (Ch. 13). Knowledge about your commentators, saves you money, Spying can save thousands of soldiers' lives and the wealth of the nation. Information is so important, a wise general must know how to hide its own information. Sun Zi says that all warfare is based on deception (Ch. 1). When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. In management science, we must be very careful to collect information and analyze what information is true and what is not. We also must know how to protect our own information. The Art of War has 13 chapters on 28 pages. Some chapters have been selected as texts in Chinese middle school. A lot of Chinese know the following story, but it cannot be found in The Art of War. General Tianji of Qi kingdom liked horse racing. One day, the king of Qi wanted to complete his horses with Tianji's. They divided their horses into three classes. Because Tianji's each class horse was weaker than the same class horse of the king's, Tianji lost all three classes competition. Tianji was downhearted and left. Tianji's friend Sunzi saw this and told Tianji that he can help Tianji to win the race. 'I have no better horse,' Tianji says. 'No, you don't need.' Sunzi said. 'You can use your third class horse to complete with king's first class horse; use your first to compete with his second; use your second to compete with his third.' Tanji did as what he had been told and won the racing.