I hail from Kentucky, a border state in the Civil War, whose state motto (coined by Lincoln, no less) is “United we stand, divided we fall,” and that is the underlying message of The Art of War. Ergo the quiet charisma and exemplary self-discipline of the good leaders who discern that such dedicated service is neither moral nor pragmatic, but both.įor when old friends and allies and even the recently won-over are treated with consideration, sooner or later the leaders can count on their allegiance. How to build enduring trust in one’s own community is the ultimate thrust of The Art of War, a lesson for our times, if ever there was one, reeling from the “Decade of Distrust.” Instead, by its definition good leaders devise careful plans to confer the long-term advantages of safety and well-being on as many as possible, preferring this mode of operation to spectacular short-term wins spelling trouble down the road. It is not only that The Art of War might as well be named The Art of Life, since it famously advises readers (originally all powerful men at court) to avoid war, by any means, if possible, on the two cogent grounds that it is far too costly a substitute for diplomacy and long-term strategies, and that the outcome is never assured, given all the variables at play. For The Art of War is a classic, not just a military classic, in the same sense that Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War is a classic, rather than a military classic. In truth, I doubt that I would have accepted Norton’s kind invitation to translate had not three graduate students (all male) persuaded me that time spent on this classic would prove rewarding. Unsurprisingly, I associated the Chinese Art of War with “Kill, kill, kill,” since my first awareness of the text’s existence came during the early 1970s, soon after Brigadier General Griffith introduced his translation as a way to “know thy enemy.”īy report, Ho Chi Minh, General Giap, and Mao Zedong knew The Art of War more or less by heart. Perhaps I am too used to gender stereotypes, but like many women who came of age during the Vietnam War, I shy away from violence (verbal and physical) and regard myself as a near-pacifist. I have a confession to make: I thought it distinctly odd that Norton asked me to translate The Art of War.
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