DECIPHERING SUN TZU DEREK M. C. YUEN Deciphering Sun Tzu How to Read ‘The Art of War’ A A Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2014 Derek M C Yuen Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title Derek M C Yuen Deciphering Sun Tzu How to Read ‘The Art of War’ ISBN 978-0-19-937-351-2 (hardback) Printed in the USA Dedicated to my late grandparents, Robert and Nancy Yuen CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Chronology xi Introduction: Sun Tzu in the West 1 1.âThe System of Chinese Strategic Thought 13 2.âThe Genesis of The Art of War 41 3.âFrom Sun Tzu and Lao Tzu: The Completion of Chinese Strategic Thought 65 4.âDeciphering Sun Tzu 99 5.âThe Successors of Sun Tzu in the West 127 6.âOn Chinese Strategic Culture 155 Conclusion 175 Notes 185 Bibliography 201 Index 207 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the first book I have written, and it owes its existence to Michael Dwyer, my publisher, who has devoted so much time and effort in help- ing to bring this project to fruition. I would also like to thank Oxford University Press for agreeing to co-publish my book in North America, and Jon de Peyer, Daisy Leitch, and Kathleen May at Hurst for guiding and supporting this layman through the publishing process. Deciphering Sun Tzu is the product of over a decade of research and writing. Its origins can be traced back to when I studied for my Masters at the London School of Economics and later PhD research at the University of Reading. I owe a special debt to my intellectual mentor, Professor Christopher Coker, who has given me invaluable advice and support since my first days at LSE. This book as well as my academic career would not have been possible without the guidance of Professor Colin S. Gray. As my PhD supervisor and an acknowledged master of war and strategy, Professor Gray laid the foundation for my strategic educa- tion; his supervision and consultation served as a veritable dialogue between Western and Chinese strategic thought to me. I am also grateful to Dr David Lonsdale, Dr C. Dale Walton, and to my fellow PhD mates at Reading University, who played an important role in making my years there the most cheerful and fruitful of times. Though the errors in this book are mine alone, its publication would never have occurred without the support, advice, and helpful critiques of many colleagues. I am indebted to my teachers at the University of Hong Kong, particularly Professor James T. H. Tang, to Professor Richard W. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS X. Hu, and to Professor Joseph C. W. Chan, for nurturing me and setting me on the academic path. I would also like to thank Professor Roger T. Ames for his helpful advice and encouragement. My deepest thanks go to my parents Elmer and Tania, and my family for their unconditional understanding and support. Without them, I could not have survived the hard times. I owe special thanks to Raymond Yuen, who played an indispensable role in shaping my personality and reading habits. Above all, this book is dedicated to my late grandparents Robert and Nancy. Hong Kong July 2014 x CHRONOLOGY c. 1600–c. 1046 BC Shang Dynasty c. 1046–771 BC Western Zhou (Chou) Dynasty c. 1046 BC Tai Gong (Jiang Ziya) founded the state of Qi (齊) 770–256 BC Eastern Zhou (Chou) Dynasty 770–403 BC Spring and Autumn Period 685–643 BC Reign of Duke Huan of Qi (Qi Huan Gong 齊桓公) 685 BC Guan Zhong appointed Prime Minister of Qi 684 BC Battle of Zhang Shao (長勺之戰)—between Lu and Qi 651 BC The height of Qi’s hegemony 638 BC Battle of Hong Shui (泓水之戰)—between Chu and Song (Sung) 512 BC Sun Tzu met the King of Wu and presented to him The Art of War 506 BC Battle of Bo Ju (柏舉之戰)—between Wu (Sun Tzu led an army) and Chu 403–221 BC Warring States Period 221–206 BC Qin (Ch’in) Dynasty 206 BC–9 AD Western (Former) Han Dynasty 9–25 AD Xin Dynasty 25–220 AD Eastern (Later) Han Dynasty 220–265 AD Three Kingdoms Period 265–316 AD Western Jin (Chin) Dynasty 317–420 AD Eastern Jin (Chin) Dynasty xi CHRONOLOGY 420–589 AD Southern and Northern Dynasties 581–618 AD Sui Dynasty 618–907 AD Tang Dynasty 907–960 AD Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 960–1127 AD Northern Song (Sung) Dynasty 1127–1276 AD Southern Song (Sung) Dynasty 1271–1368 AD Yuan Dynasty (Mongols) 1368–1644 AD Ming Dynasty 1644–1911 AD Qing (Ch’ing) Dynasty (Manchu) xii INTRODUCTION SUN TZU IN THE WEST Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Sun Zi Bing Fa 孫子兵法) is an ancient Chinese military treatise that was written 2,500 years ago (c.512 BC). It did not reach the West until 1772, when the text was translated into French and published in Paris by Father Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, a French Jesuit who had spent many years in Beijing.1 The fact that the French discov- ered The Art of War shortly before the French Revolution has often led the Chinese to claim that Napoleon had applied Sun Tzu’s teachings in his military campaigns. But there is no evidence that Napoleon ever read the work. And as thoughts and things Chinese were no longer as popular in nineteenth-century France as they had been in the eighteenth century, no post-Revolution reference to Sun Tzu can be found until 1900.2 The first English translation of The Art of War came at a much later date. In 1905, Captain E. F. Calthrop, RFA, then a British army language student in Japan, translated the text into English. It was first published in Tokyo under the title Sonshi.3 Yet The Art of War still remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world until Lionel Giles’s much- renowned translation in 1910. The English-speaking world has since used The Art of War as a primary source to understand and interpret Chinese strategic thought, as well as China’s mindset and international behavior. There has long been a tendency in the West to rely on The Art of War when accounting for China’s strategic decisions and international behav- ior, something that is not entirely unjustified in light of the paramount role Sun Tzu has played in Chinese strategic thought. Thus Mao Yuan Yi 1 DECIPHERING SUN TZU (茅元儀 1594–1640), the editor of the most comprehensive military manual and encyclopedia in Chinese history,4 asserts that The Art of War contains everything written before it—works after The Art of War never surpass it, while other works are nothing more than mere commentaries on it. Sun Tzu’s work has been at the center of the Chinese strategic worldview ever since its first appearance; even Tao Te Ching, the Taoist canon that contains considerable strategic wisdom, has been unable to sway its dominant status. New translations of The Art of War, as well as archeological discoveries, are often the primary means through which Western Sinologists and scholars seek to evaluate the current state of research on Sun Tzu. However, while developments such as these have made valuable contribu- tions to the existing scholarship, new translations and archeological evi- dence are unable to serve the needs of those Western readers and strate- gists who aim for a more complete understanding of Sun Tzu’s ideas— when attempting to decipher Sun Tzu this is not where the real break throughs have taken place. For those wishing to understand Sun Tzu’s work, the most significant developments have instead resulted from the integration of aspects of Chinese strategic thought into Western strategic thinking, with the work of Basil H. Liddell Hart and John Boyd being particularly important in this regard. Liddell Hart and Boyd, two of the most influential strategic thinkers of the twentieth century, redefined and re-theorized Western strategic thought in a way that made it more attuned to Sun Tzu’s ideas. In so doing, they in turn made Sun Tzu’s work more comprehensible to the Western world. Liddell Hart was not only among the first in the West to rediscover Sun Tzu—he also made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of Sun Tzu by employing one of Sun Tzu’s dual-concepts, namely that of ch’i (unorthodox 奇) and cheng (orthodox 正). This dual-concept played a vital role in informing Liddell Hart’s so-called “indirect approach,” which he used to reinterpret Western military history from ancient Greece to the Second World War.