The Art of War
Although accounts differ over the Sun Tzu’s origins, according to a biography written by a 2nd century BC historian he was a general who lived in the state of Wu in 6th century BC.
Sun Tzu is most famous for the Art of War, praised as the definitive work on military strategy and tactics prior to the collapse of imperial China. Consisting of 13 chapters, the Art of War is one of the most famous studies on strategies for military success.
The most fundamental of Sun Tzu's principles is that "warfare is based on deception", and he believed that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting". One of his stratagems emphasizes the importance of knowing your enemy, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat”. Today his work has found new applications in areas totally unrelated to its original military purpose and used as a guide in business, sport, diplomacy, and even in dating!
could someone tell me the song in 13:16
get this frequency clear
this is a terrible doc.
The United States Military Establishment of today should reread this thing! And the documentary is available on YouTube.
A good documentary for generalizing the concepts of the 'Art of War' for the layman. I would still suggest for those who are interested to actually read the book itself. The main message that should be derived is 'wars are won and lost in the minds of men long before they are even fought'.
Although the analogy of chess has some merit, I would not take it to heart. Gary Kasparov utilized many concepts of the 'Art of War', the best being a strategy coined over 2 millennium later as the 'intentional stance'. Once you know what motivates an individual, it is easy to predict his actions. (know your enemy) This premise allowed Kasparov to defeat a computer that could calculate many more moves in advance then himself. Since the computer is 'programmed' to win, it cannot contemplate concepts like 'stalemate' into a strategy. Thus, Kasparov only need play purely 'defensive' forcing Deep Blue to attack, leaving itself vulnerable. (the art of the counterpuncher is to make you fight his fight, not your own! )
This is a truly horrendous documentary. Seemingly created to panda to the hopelessly illiterate, the documentary's director seems to have taken an interesting subject and drowned it in an insipid soup of hyperbole, inappropriate musical and visual effects, and trashy tabloid-style journalistic techniques. I wonder if the creators feel bad about creating something which is of such poor quality on every level I can think of...
These chess vs go comments amuse to me. Apparently the message wasn't conveyed properly.
The History Channel didn't say go was better than chess. They are scholars, it's obvious they know the strategy chess has inside it. The point that they were trying to convey was that the war was not merely a 1 side vs another side. It was a war of ambushes and overwhelming encirclement.
In chess you can clearly see both sides of the battlefield. You know how to strike weak points, it's just that you actually have to find them. Though in Go, the entire playing field is blank from the start. You don't know whats going to happen immediately because there aren't many pieces in the playing field. Go conveys the field of war in Vietnam much better than Chess because troops were blindly being placed into unknown territory. Also because the forces in Vietnam weren't very strong, every unit has the same value.
In chess, point values are assigned to each piece. In go, all the values are the same. Even so, you don't win by pieces, you win by territory and how well you control the map. Poorly placed pieces actually give points to your enemy. Because America couldn't efficiently use their artillery and airforce, this meant that it was an infantry vs infantry war which gives each unit similar value despite experience. This was the main concept that History was trying to convey. This wasn't a war of people vs people. It was a war of territory and control.
Yet another documentary I had to switch off after a few minutes! Why, oh why, do American documentaries have to always detract from the content through using excessive, irrelevant, 'dramatic' music... compounded by ruining the visuals by turning the whole tapestry into some kind of 'flashing disco extravaganza' through pointless constant 'dramatic' editing? Are American audiences so stupefied by a lifetime of glitzy advertising that childish productions are the only thing that'll maintain their attention? I find it totally patronising!
just sent answer to your question 9 months ago.
Rolling Stones. Heartbreaker from the 1973 album, Goatshead Soup.
Some said that Vietnam war doesn't applies because Vietnam Communists had more troops and lost more than the US. But on the other hand, America got Southern Vietnam as ally, and boast MUCH higher technology and still not win. Who was really good? Taking mere number as standard is wrong, as is mentioned in Art of War.
And back to North Vietnam, they won the war, but their economy was broken, society suffered. So do they win? War isn't just about win or lose, it has MANY side effects. That's why Sun Tzu told us to be cautious about war.
one of the texts studied at the American military academy at West Point is The Art Of War. It was also a favorite piece of reading material for Ho Chi Minh, so both sides of the conflict utilized the text.
Except North Vietnam did "win" the war. . . . .and ousted the khmer rouge from cambodia ?
****.... vietnam losses were 16 time biger than american
someone is talking about a small army against a large...??????
there were milions of vietnams and chineses
think you kung fu fans
kun fu did not work,,only in cinema...
Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" is indeed a masterpiece. It discusses war as the grand strategy; tactical maneuver; intelligence operation; PhysOp in soldiers morale as well as public support; leadership, chain of command ,,you name it. It discuss everything you can imagine in term of warfare.. even Ideological and cultural warfare ..I like it .. must try to get a copy of the book..
8 years olds or 80 years old, it is extremely disappointing, extremely! These experts are expert at what ???? Certainly not WAR ??? How dumb do they think 6th graders are?? What gives them the right to misinform them if they are that dumb??
The whole premise is misconceived. Chess is not a game of elimination but of deception, it use was totally miss conceived. Checkers is elimination, they never played a good game of chess in their lives, too much X-Box and Wi time, not enough think time.
A little up to date history might help also, Vietnam, after Sun Tzu being ignored by Westmoreland was won by Sun Tzu principle ultimately and then deserted later by Congress [commitment]. Eisenhower used Sun Tzu and flexibility to overcome Montgomery's failure to take Caen, it was not an intended diversion except in politically correct kindness to the Brits [Canadians] who died. Most of Lee's faults given here were for lack of cavalry, JEB Stuart was off marauding and out of contact with Lee, there are better Sun Tzu comparisons here.
Shame, shame History Chanel.
this doc is the art of war for 8 year old kids -_-
Can anybody let me know the song that is played in background when the Vietnam era is shown for the first time.
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i love it when chess players get defensive about their game. Chess is the battle, go is the war
Please keep your worthless comments to yourself. or not.
I only fall into the 20th percentile and can roundly assert that this must be one of the stupidest ( if not outwardly offensive ) documentaries existent.
Does anyone out there need a documentary writer?
to claim that sans-zu "predicted" the outcome of all the three war is ludicrous. just to write a book with strategy dosent mean that you predict victory for one or the other side.
( exscuse my poor spelling)
While I found the documentary interesting, I found the references to chess somewhat, if not totally inaccurate; though I haven't played Go in years I am a chess expert and chess is more complex than Go. There is much 'deception' in chess at a high level. Garry Kasparov won an amazing majority of his games by luring his opponent to one side of the board and attacking the other side.Up to move 40 in chess there is almost twice as many possibilities as there are electrons in the known universe. Sure in chess quite a bit of the time u have a fair idea of what your opponent is up to --- it's just 'how' he's going to do it is all important. Then again, in some games it's very difficult telling what your opponent is up to, or what he will do, because the possibilities are immense. I think the bottom line in Sun Zhu's philosophy is not to defeat yourself, then you have a chance of victory. In chess my motto is not to defeat myself --- to overcome my own demons or I have NO chance at all. In competition your first opponent is actually yourself; once you liberate yourself from fears and anxieties, and create earned confidence, then you can truly be objective. But all in all Sun Zhu was a very astute and logical man.
I don't like this 'show' because it made the Art of War look too bloody simple. But should give credits to their attempt.
Not one single concept or a guild line from any ancient Chinese text should be taken word for word. You need to understand the context behind each sentence and character. Why? For example, critical characters been used in the text can have 5 different meanings (as to every Chinese character BTW)... When you put each meaning into the same sentence, it may become more different things... This also shows that it is not a "Gospel".
Many westerners think this book is common sense. Well, what I can say is the concept is there that anyone have the opportunity to exploit and explore. But not everyone grasp the "common sense" very well. Just like the laws of physics. It's there already and waiting for people to discover. When Einstein proposed many of his theories, even it seems logical to you, I don't suppose you would still think it's common sense?
From my personal experience from reading the Art of War, I assure you even if what it says makes logical sense to you, you will not discover most of the exploit without reading the book.
I definitely like the comparison between wars in Ancient China under Sun Tzu and modern wars. Very interesting.