The Art of War by Sun Tzu

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The Art of War has been used quite frequently throughout the years by many intelligent leaders and scholars. The day of its origin is still unknown, as well as who actually wrote it. It is believe that a Chinese military leader named Sun Tzu is the author, but people nowadays begin to question if he actually existed. Some people say it is a collection of Chinese military strategies that were passed down generation from generation. Whatever the origin of these teaching is, it is clear that whoever developed these tactics was an extremely wise individual. Not only does The Art of War show us amazing strategies to use in war but a new way of viewing, and living our lives. We can use all of Sun Tzu’s basic principles in our everyday lives, which makes these teaching even more unique.

One of Sun Tzu’s 6 basic principles is deception and foreknowledge. This most likely will lie under the weak points and strong and laying plans chapter. A quote of Sun Tzu’s goes to say, “Now the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.” This basically means that you must know your enemy’s weak and strong points while keeping yours in mind as well. Failure to do so will lead to defeat because without prior knowledge we may be attacking the enemy’s strong point with your weak one. Another quote, which falls under this idea is, “It is better to outwit your enemy than rely on your strengths.” This tells us that we should not always rely on your strengths because at times all that is really needed is knowledge. Sometimes our strongest muscle is our brain and instead of using our physical energy we should try to outsmart our opponent with our intelligence and power of deception. We have to put

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ourselves in ou...

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...united and much stronger than you would alone. Never underestimate those who help you through the tough times, never take them for granted.

Sun Tzu was, weather a made up ghost or a real individual, was a truly wise man. He not only was able to win battles with these tactics, but was able to create teachings that can be applies to just about anything. Sometimes there are more battles than just war, sometimes there is the battles within us, or just in our everyday lives. Jobs, school, family, friends, anything can be the enemy we are fighting in this battles. Through Sun Tzu’s teaching we can become victorious and win our obstacles. Not everything relays on our physical strengths but rather the mental strengths. We too have to think like Sun Tzu in order to obtain success. Like said before, sometimes our strongest muscle isn’t our outer body, but our brain.

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