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.
The Art of War is a foundational treatise on military strategy, traditionally attributed to Sun Wu (commonly known as Sun Tzu), a general and strategist of the late Spring and Autumn period (c. 6th–5th century BCE). Recognized as the world’s oldest extant work on military theory, it holds a place of unparalleled significance in…