Reader's Misinterpretation
Overview
Non-Fiction
When reading modern nonfiction, you can read a
lead sentence and skim the rest of most paragraphs and understand exactly what
is being said. When reading science—modern or ancient—you have to read every
word and every sentence carefully to learn the terminology. You can open a
nonfiction book to any chapter and understand most of it without studying the
preceding chapters carefully. But science and math start with developing precise
language. If you skip even a few paragraphs defining their concepts, you get
completely lost. With ancient science, you have the additional barrier of having
to understand the underlying scientific methods and models
of the period.
Because we translate Sun Tzu into normal
English, readers think they understand what is being said even when they don’t.
For example, in Sun Tzu’s writing, the difference between “fight,” “conflict,”
“battle,” and “attack” is as great as the difference between “rational numbers,”
“irrational numbers,” “real numbers,” and “imaginary numbers” in mathematics. As
in mathematics, we can understand what the words “rational” “irrational,”
“real,” and “imaginary” mean, but have no idea about how those terms define
different types of numbers. The same is true in Sun Tzu’s work. You may know
what “fight,” “conflict,” “battle,” and “attack” mean normally, but unless you
understand the very specific ways these terms and a hundred others are used in
The Art of War, you cannot appreciate what he is saying in any specific section.
Sun Tzu carefully defines his terms from the
very first page, but when translated into normal English, the result appears to
be normal nonfiction. When we read “fight,” “conflict,” “battle,” and “attack”
we assume we know what is being said. We quickly forget (and often do not even
notice) Sun Tzu’s very specific definitions. Since “fight,” “conflict,”
“attack,” and “battle” mean very similar things in English, we miss most of the
specific points that Sun Tzu is making.
An Example for Discussion
At the beginning of our workshops,
we use several stanzas from The Art of War to demonstrate how much of Sun
Tzu sounds like vague aphorisms. For example, the first two lines of one of
those stanza's reads:
“Know the enemy and know yourself.
Your victory will be painless."
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War 10:5.15-16
On the surface, this seems like a simple statement about the somewhat obvious
idea that we should know ourselves and our opponents. However, when we come back
to to these lines (and the other stanzas that we use) again at the end of our
workshop after only a day's study, attendees can see easy it is to miss the true
meaning hidden in these lines.
Sun Tzu's "Hidden" Meaning
Sun Tzu didn't really hide his meaning. He explains it in detail. Though much
of it is expressed in the rich cultural tradition of
his era and much is lost by poor
translation of the Chinese, the real problem is that most readers do not
even begin to learn Sun Tzu's specific use of terms.
When you start reading the Art of War (get your free e-book
of here), you should notice how much of the work is spent simply defining
terms. This process begins on the first page and continues almost on every
page thereafter.
Casual readers cannot keep track of this multitude
of definitions. As the work goes on, Sun Tzu uses his specialized vocabulary to
express very sophisticated ideas. Most of these ideas cannot be easily expressed
without that vocabulary. However, since readers do not learn the vocabulary by
just reading through the work, they cannot see its real meaning. This is
especially true for readers of the many English translations that often ignore
Sun Tzu's consistent use of terms.
If Sun Tzu wrote in modern times, he would have
explained these ideas in more detail. In his era, however, writing and
duplicating books was expensive and time-consuming. The onus was put on the
reader to study the work rather than on the writer and copier to explain every
idea in detail. There is a 2,500 year gap in Sun Tzu's expectation and reader's
today today.
The Specific Use of Concepts
The two lines above appear rather late in Sun Tzu's
work, the tenth chapter out of thirteen. At this point in the book, every significant
term in these lines has a very specific definition. To understand these
lines, you must first be familiar with the meaning of the previous defined
concepts, “to
know”, “enemy”, “victory”, and “pain”.
In addition to these specific terms, the book has defined an array of
relationships among all these ideas. These relationships are important in the Chinese scientific tradition, which taught--as modern science
does--that many concepts are beyond words. They are best expressed in formulas defined
relationships. A good modern example of this idea is E=MC2, which
defines a mathematical relationship in which the velocity of light (C) is the
only constant.
When we look at the meaning of any of Sun Tzu's concepts, it is useful to
know how many of Sun Tzu's formulas it appears in. Strictly speaking, all these
formulas together provide the complete definition of a term.
The Concepts in these Two Lines
Some of the concepts in these two line, such as what it means "to know"
something, are too complicated to explain in such a short article such as this.
"To know" is one of the nine major themes of the work and is part of well over a
hundred and fifty formulas.
However, to give you an idea of how different Sun Tzu's concept of
"knowledge" is from the casual use of the term, we can say that his definition
all strategic knowledge is stochastic and relative rather than deterministic and
absolute. In other words,
all knowledge is about probabilities rather than about certainties. It is also
about comparisons. In competition, the absolute values and not as meaningful as
the relative relationships. All
competitive knowledge also factors in the tendency toward self-deception on our
parts and the intent to deceive on the part of our opponents. This brings in the
idea that to interpret action, we first need to understand motivation.
You see how one idea connects to another?
The term “enemy” is simpler because it doesn't appear in
as many formulas. "Enemy" generally means someone just like
you, who seeks exclusive control over the same territory that you do and to
whom you must compare yourself, your capabilities, and your existing position.
Because "to know" requires comparisons, your enemy's characteristics are needed
to define your own. Again, this raises a question about what "territory," "control," "compare," and so on
actually mean, but defining them all just leads to more definitions
until we end up with the entire text of The Art of War.
Instead of jumping down that particular rabbit hole, let us just say that
at this point in the work, these concepts have been explained and the
connections made. What is
important here is how you and your opponents differ among those many
factors that affect competition, despite the fact that you share all your human
self-interests, limited knowledge, and, by
definition, potentially conflicting goals.
This brings us to "victory." “Victory” does not mean winning battles or
defeating enemies. Sun Tzu taught that a general that fights and wins a hundred
battles is not a great general. A great general is one who wins without fighting
a single battle. Generally, the simplest definition of victory is securing a
desirable position, that is, a position that cannot be challenged easily by the
opponent. It also means getting the benefits or resources from that position.
Finally, we have "painless." This is the
simplest idea, because “pain” simply means the cost of conflict. Cost has
three specific dimensions, so pain shares those dimensions, but again, let us
limit our discussion to the simplest possible definition rather than bring in
all its dimensions. "Painless" means limiting costs to the degree that they are
not felt.
The Many Meanings in Two Lines
Because of the depth of meaning in each word, every line in The Art of War
has a wealth of useful interpretations.
One meaning of the two lines that began this article is:
“If you have highly accurate information (To know) about you and your opponents
relative strengths and weaknesses (the enemy and yourself), you can only meet that enemy either when
you are both ready to join together as allies or when you overmatch that enemy
to such an obvious degree (victory) that he will surrender without a fight
(painless).”
However, another simplified but accurate interpretation of this line is:
“If you have avoided self-deception and accurately
interpreted the motivations (to know) behind your opponent's moves
(your enemy), you can find a place (yourself) where you will invest
much less in winning a dominant position (victory) than the position is
worth in terms of its tangible rewards (painless)."
Other different interpretations would bring
to light the various other aspects of the deeper meaning of these terms. All
these interpretations are useful in terms of understanding the methods of
classical strategy.
What Sun Tzu Doesn't Mean
At this point, you might be thinking that all interpretations of these lines
are valid and you can make up your own interpretation and it would be just as
valid as the two I offer above.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
For example, over the years, I have had several casual students of Sun Tzu
write me about how they interpret these lines to mean that all wars can be
eliminated if only we worked harder to understand that our enemies and
discovering a win/win situation working with them. While Sun Tzu definitely
teaches "winning without conflict," he would laugh at the idea that
“understanding” alone eliminates hostility and that the real victory is n always
finding a win/win solution. Sun Tzu was, above all, realistic and pragmatic
about the nature of contests.
While this interpretation can seem reasonable to those who have not studied
Sun Tzu, it is flies in the face of several important elements of his classical
strategy.
At a basic level, Sun Tzu taught that all real “war” level contests are based
on underlying philosophies not miscommunication. These differences in thinking
can only be resolved by testing ideas in a contest. Winning this contest means
discovering which ideas work best and which work less well. While occasionally
both ideas will work and can work together, this is usually not the case.
Ideas have consequences. Some ideas are simply more correct than others.
Humans can only discover which ideas are better in the crucible of competition.
Victory is real because it returns real rewards out of competition.
Logically contradictory and competing ideas can both win rewards, but most are
not complementary. This means that they don't return more rewards when used
together. In most situations, one set of ideas is more rewarding than another.
To put this question in very practical, easy-to-understand terms, how can we
determine whose ideas about how to make and sell a given product are superior?
Can we sit down and negotiate or analyze to determine which product ideas are
best? Can competitors agree on which customers are better served by their
competing products? We can try, but such negotiations are, by their nature, a
plot against consumers. In the end, the only real test of which products serve
consumer best is in the marketplace.
When we make and sell the two products competitively, one may win and the
other lose, or both may lose, or both may win. However, each customer is free to
make their own choice about which product is best for them. If they are
dissatisfied, they are free to make another choice in the future. Eventually, if
they keep searching, they will identify the best choice. In the end, customers
will find the best products for them. The products that serve the broadest
customer base will dominate their market. The other products will tend to
follow. The worst approaches will fail entirely and be eliminated. The truth is
found in the contest.
Of course, not all ideas can be tested in the marketplace, which is why we
have elections, wars, and other forms of competition. Often, the contest is not
about philosophy alone, but the other key elements of competition: climate,
ground, character, or methods. The very richness of the contest is what makes
classical strategy so interesting and valuable.
The Secrets of Sun Tzu
So, Sun Tzu means very specific and important things when he says that "we
must know ourselves and our enemies." The problem is that most of us lack a deep
understanding of the concepts in which Sun Tzu speaks. This is why our
victories are usually far from painless.
If you want to make your successes less painful, we strongly encourage you to
learn the science of strategy. Toward that goal, we hope this article has given
you a little more understanding of what we mean by the "secrets of Sun Tzu."
While Sun Tzu's work might seem like vague aphorisms, nothing could be further
from the truth. Each line of Sun Tzu has a specific meaning and an array of
valuable interpretations. Only study can teach you what success requires and why
Sun Tzu's system has survived for millennia and grown in popularity.
You might want to read our article on
"Planning Versus Strategy" if you want to learn more about what Sun Tzu
offers. If you already realize (as you should) that you need to learn more, we
recommend that you start on the path to mastering strategy with any of
our books or audios or
one of our
on-line strategy courses.
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