Taoists

"諸將效首虜，（休）畢賀，因問信曰：「兵法右倍山陵，前左水澤，今者將軍令臣等反背水陳，曰破趙會食，臣等不服。然竟以勝，此何術也？」信曰：「此在兵法，顧諸君不察耳。兵法不曰『陷之死地而後生，置之亡地而後存』？且信非得素拊循士大夫也，此所謂『驅市人而戰之』，其勢非置之死地，使人人自為戰；今予之生地，皆走，寧尚可得而用之乎！」諸將皆服曰：「善。非臣所及也。」"

"Sun Tzu’s success teaches us that a successful general is one who fully calculates his approach and plans to fight in a battle. However, the average reader is not able to identify Sun Tzu’s teachings on a deeper or philosophical level. This is my reason for writing and exegeses on the Art of War."

"It seems to me that The Art of War codifies the principles of kung fu, the martial arts: to co-operate with the enemy, to prevent all-out war when possible. I remember reading a lot of pages devoted to fighting with fire, and burning down cities. Devotion to tactics rather than ethics. I have a figurine of Gwan Goong, god of war and literature, reading a book. That book is The Art of War."

"By contrast, classical China produced many great generals, fought many wars and conquered many peoples but did not elevate military values above civilian. (It helped, perhaps, that the scholars rather than the military wrote the histories.) Fighting was not held up as something admirable but rather as the result of a breakdown in order and propriety. There is no equivalent of the Iliad in Chinese literature and the heroes held up for the young to emulate were the great bureaucrats and wise rulers who maintained the peace. Early on Chinese thinkers such as Confucius and the great strategist Sunzi (also known in the transliteration Sun Tzu) stressed that the state’s authority rested on its virtue as well as on its ability to use force. And for Sunzi, the greatest general was the one who could win a war, through manoeuvre or trickery, without fighting a battle. Prestige in Chinese society came rather from being a scholar, poet or painter; and from the Tang dynasty onwards the examination system to enter the imperial civil service was the favoured path for fame and prestige. Successful generals were sometimes awarded a scholar’s rank and gown as a mark of particular favour where many European societies would have given military decorations to meritorious civilians."

"In the famous Chinese treatise The Art of War, Sunzi laid down precepts which succeeding generations studied carefully, among them the famous ‘Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat’ and ‘He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.’ He also had specific advice, with lists of key factors, situations or types of actions, on the various phases of war, from making the plans to choosing the right terrain to fight. From the Qin Emperor to Mao Zedong, The Art of War has provided leaders throughout China and Asia with guidelines for how to win a war. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of Vietnam’s victories against the French in the 1950s and the Americans a decade later, was an admirer, as are the Western business people who have flocked to buy The Complete Sun Tzu for Business Success: Use the Classic Rules of The Art of War to Win the Battle for Customers and Conquer the Competition or The Art of War for Women: Sun Tzu’s Ancient Strategies and Wisdom for Winning at Work. Perhaps they like his assertion that ‘All warfare is based on deception’ or enjoy his passages on the importance of the strong leader for victory, and it must help that The Art of War itself is short and consists of pithy maxims."

"The one thing missing from The Art of War is love, ... any sense of altruism, any sense of loving your neighbor. It's just a[bout] how to take advantage of your neighbor, how to triumph over your neighbor, how to manipulate your neighbor. I'm sorry... It's a very nasty book. How to use your spies — that chapter thirteen on spies — is chilling. The whole book — of course it's very clever, and of course a lot of it is very true, and of course we can go through life treating people in that way if you want to, but I don't happen to believe that's the best way to go. ... The Lúnyǔ [Analects of Confucius] is a superior book to Sūnzi bīngfǎ [The Art of War] because the Lúnyǔ talks about morality, talks about caring for your fellow human being; after all, the whole idea of ren ... doesn't come in Sūnzi bīngfǎ at all. Sūnzi bīngfǎ is: how to use your friends and neighbors in order to get the better of them. That doesn't make me feel good. I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy, and I believe in being nice to people whenever I can. ... You don't go out of your way like Sun Tzu to manipulate everybody including your friends. For me, Sūnzi bīngfǎ is the dark side of Chinese culture. It's the dark side. And, I know it's there. And there's a dark side to Western culture too. And, therefore, it's important to be aware of it, but not to be corrupted by it. Not to be polluted by it. Because it is a very powerfully-polluting little book. Very nasty little book. Let's not pretend otherwise."

"In peace, prepare for war. In war, prepare for peace."

"兵者，詭道也。故能而示之不能，用而示之不用，近而示之遠，遠而示之近，"

"實而備之，強而避之，怒而撓之，卑而驕之，佚而勞之，親而離之，出其不意，攻其不備。"

"夫未戰而廟算勝者，得算多也；未戰而廟算不勝者，得算少也。"

"將聽吾計，用之必勝，留之；將不聽吾計，用之必敗，去之；"

"近於師者貴賣，貴賣則百姓財竭"

"兵久而國利者，未之有也。"

"知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆"

"故用兵之法，十則圍之，五則攻之，倍則分之， 敵則能戰之，少則能守之，不若則能避之。"

"是故百戰百勝，非善之善者也；不戰而屈人之兵，善之善者也。"

"古之所善戰者，勝於易勝者也。"

"知可戰與不可戰者勝。"

"凡用兵之法，全國爲上；破國次之；全軍爲上，破軍次之；全旅爲上，破旅次之；全卒爲上，破卒次之；全伍爲上，破伍次之。"

"昔之善戰者，先爲不可勝，以待敵之可勝，不可勝在己，可勝在敵。故善戰者，能爲不可勝，不能使敵必可勝。故曰：勝可知，而不可爲。"

"見勝不過衆人之所識，非善之善者也。"

"是故勝兵先勝而後求戰，敗兵先戰而後求勝。"

"微乎微乎，至於無形；神乎神乎，至於無聲；故能為敵之司命。"

"人皆知我所以勝之形，而莫知吾所以制勝之形。"

"故形兵之極，至於無形，無形，則深間不能窺，上智不能謀。"

"故善戰者，至人而不至於人。"