Sun Tzu - The Art of War
Another night another loss in poker, dammit. What happened to my winning streak? I lost $20 last nite in two separate games. In the first game, the Top 2 split the pot and I came 3rd... in the second game, the winner took all and I came 2nd! So I was just outside the money both times, dammit! Ah well, thanks to the usual bunch of jokers: Ippei, Daryl, Pete and Kev, for a good night, ya bastards!Anyway, main topic of this post is the book I recently read, Sun Tzu's, The Art of War. This book is widely regarded as an ancient masterpiece, way ahead of its time and a useful + comprehensive manual to warfare and life in general. To those that have seen the film Wall Street, this book was a favourite of the greedy protagonist, corporate raider Gordon Gecko (who pronounced the name like "Son Zoo"), and underpinned his "greed is good" motto. In addition to Mr. Gecko, a whole host of (questionable?) characters have read this book, the picture below should give an insight into its ubiquity.
I found the book to be interesting in parts. Much of its philosophy seemed to be related to Taoism, plus the particular version I was reading included a bunch of commentaries from Chinese scholars across the ages and a couple of Westerners to boot, that put much of its wisdom into the context of many military endeavours across history. Master Sun's words still cut like a knife through butter though in many parts of the text.The problem with the text overall though was that it is, after all, like 2500 years old or something. So much of Master Sun's wisdom was relatively basic and now, one might say, serves to be common knowledge. The ideas presented were obviously very sophisticated for their time but now, in parts did come off sounding primitive. This is in parts only, however, because in other parts Master Sun came off sounding wise as his words served to remind us of the poignant importance of basic philosophies in life.
If anything, Master Sun's work is a tacit reminder of the value and differences of Eastern Philosophies. His ideas focus a great deal on inner, inherent strength allowing one to overcome many obstacles, and the concepts of balance, inner energy and correct thought were overriding themes in the text.
One thing I like about The Art of War is the almost poetic simplicity of the words themselves, not sure if this is because of the translation or simply the simple writing style of Chinese scholars at the time, but it is surely the reason why so many use Master Sun's work as a kind of personal mantra, or include it in quotable quotes (the same can be said of Lao Tzu, the great Taoist scholar).
Because of this, I've decided to include an excerpt from the text:
Master Sun said:
He who advances
Without seeking
Fame,
Who retreats
Without escaping
Blame,
He whose one aim is
To protect the people
And serve his Lord,
This man is
A Jewel of the Realm.
I shall post more quotes in future if I feel them to be fitting.
Labels: literature, philosophy, social life
posted by LX @ 1:35 AM
Comments: 4
