“If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.” This was one of the most important quotes from the most important book in warfare worldwide, The Art of War. The author of the book will live forever in history. His name is Sun Tzu. Written in the 6th century BC, during the Zhou dynasty of China, The Art of War concerns warfare primarily, and strategy holistically. It has been used in China for military testing since 1080 AD by Emperor Shenzong. It was first translated into French in 1772, and then English in 1910.
It has influenced the course of history tenfold, and has been consulted by leaders such as Douglas MacArthur, Norman Schwarzkopf, Mao Zedong and countless others. General Douglas MacArthur specifically mentioned using Art of War in his Pacific campaign against the axis powers. The creative process behind the Art of War, comes from its ability to turn weaknesses into strengths for its user, and strengths into weaknesses for those it comes up against. It also introduced the world to indirect conflict, something that has been widely adapted in politics and business as well. By exploring the different forms of conflict whether militarily or personal, it has a wide breadth of applications. This divergent level of thinking is what elevates Sun Tzu above countless other great creative people.
In fact, Art of War is still being used even in the digital age. Cybercrime and cyber warfare are just new tools in which the art of war can be extrapolated onto. Specifically, chapter 13 looks at espionage and information gathering, something that has become paramount in our 2023 world. This creates almost a family tree of creatives who have taught variations of Art of War to their pupils. “Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies,” is the building block for all espionage and intelligence gathering in the world.
This open-source style of learning has allowed for other people to adapt art of war for their own purposes. This can be as simple as finding out if someone you're romantically attracted to is interested, or as complicated as robbing Fort Knox. Art of War is a blueprint, allowing for others to make it their own. It is the ultimate creativity manual, and in my opinion should be required reading for all high school seniors.
I love how you related the topic to modern times with the connection to cybercrime and cyber warfare. "The Art of War" is a book that I have heard about growing up, but I never got the opportunity to read it. I think it's interesting how you can utilize the mental strategies from this book and apply it to myriad of different scenarios. In that sense, Sun Tzu most definitely used divergent thinking to power these ideas.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about "The Art of War" as I have often heard quotes about it, but I have yet to read it myself. While it is true that it has been used for what it was initially intended, which is war, I have also seen many people incorporate some of the philosophies into day to day life. Because of this, I feel as though Sun Tzu has created something that was able to impact people in way that perhaps he could not have imagined.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting angle to pull out creativity from, but I laud it. I have not read the book myself, but many people in my life have told me to and I think it is about time I do. Creativity isn't usually mixed into the conversation over this topic, but you are right to think it should be. Creativity must've be a strong suit of Sun Tzu for him to create such a long lasting work.
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