This excerpt from Chapter 7 of The Art of War argues contending for battlefield advantage is warfare’s hardest task. The core skill is treating roundabout routes as direct paths and drawbacks as gains, luring foes with bait to arrive first. Sun Tzu also warns military maneuver carries both benefits and severe risks.
This chapter uses water as a metaphor for warfare: evade enemy strength and strike weaknesses. Armies adjust tactics like water shifting course. War has no fixed formation; commanders who flexibly adapt to foes’ shifting situations earn the title of master strategist.
This passage introduces four ways to probe enemy intelligence: analyzing schemes, provoking movements, feigning deployments and small skirmishes. The supreme stratagem is invisible troop formations, hiding all plans and flexibly adapting tactics to endless shifting battlefield conditions.
This section of The Art of War stresses knowing the exact time and battlefield to coordinate troops seamlessly. Without clear plans, army units cannot support each other. Skillful strategy can neutralize large enemy forces and seize victory regardless of their numerical strength.
This article explains Sun Tzu’s temple calculation principle: thorough pre-war planning secures victory. It contrasts Wu Zixu’s well-devised exhaustion strategy against Chu with Cao Jiu’s reckless, unplanned battle defeat, extending the wisdom to modern business and life decisions.
March where the enemy cannot rush to defend; advance where he least expects you.To travel a thousand li without fatigue, move through unguarded lands.To conquer every target you attack, strike places the enemy fails to defend.To hold an impregnable defense, guard positions the enemy will not assault.
Sun Tzu stresses seizing battlefield initiative: arrive early to stay rested. Skilled generals manipulate foes via lures and threats, exhausting, starving or unsettling the enemy instead of being controlled by them.