Venom Ponders : Every state says that wars are fought to solve a problem ; ominously every problem this world faces has the history of a war behind it.
Looking beyond the obvious , sometimes it is not history and culture which determine the literature of a society. Rather at times it is the other way round . Some path breaking visionaries can be harbingers of peace and war with what they draft with the pen.
Tides of soldiers can thwart an army but who has the might to bring down the power of alphabets ? One such visionary was Confucius whose teachings and writings defined the Chinese way of life. Not as popular as him was another person who lived during his times albeit no less a visionary . Directly or indirectly he helped shape the oriental forms of martial arts we know today with his literary masterpiece , The Art Of War . His name. Sun Tzu .
Sun Tzu wrote what was one of the earliest treatise exhaustively covering military craftsmanship and army strategies , which were not merely bound by the physical prowess of men . Like all great treatises, the Art of War is so definitive with the winds of any time, that even in the contemporary logical sens, it can be directly applied to all the management and operational strategies mantras taught in prestigious universities around the globe.
To sum up, this was the first book that stated that any war strategy is not defined earlier in the general’s camp but rather dynamic. These are the things we already knew. What I wished to emphasize here is that inadvertently the forms of martial arts as popularized by Wushu, karate , Jujitsu etc. all draw the essence of their techniques and mastery of the body and the mind from the postulates as mentioned in the book .
Just having a quick look at some of the plans and strategies in the Art of War and how they influence the arts as we know today .
Laying Plans (Chapter 1): While heading the profit of my counsel , avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.
This is one of the unwritten rules of Kumite as in karate or sparring in layman terms and the basis of Bruce Lee’s revolutionary Jeet Kune Do , laid down centuries before either of them started to thrive . There is no certain situation which needs one to stick to one set of moves or kicks or punches if the situation demands it. Kumite rather emphasizes that we master a few punches, kicks or the Rogan and then use them in combination as the situation demands. There is no one punch-kick-guard combination that will work every time . In fact , studying the way the opponent moves will give a good insight into how to react . Probably I can write another post on this later to describe this further. Jeet Kunde Do goes one step further stating that if we are pinned , then there is nothing that can possibly stop us from biting the opponent to lose the hold. Then why not do it ?
Laying Plans (Chapter 1): When able to attack, we must seem unable ;when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near we must make the enemy believe we are far away;when far away , we must make him believe we are near .
The combination of breathing, the movements and the right gust of Kiai is the key success to any attack maneuver . When we are at a safe distance from the enemy, he will be tricked to think he is safe out of our reach and try to do something fancy . In such a situation , step in twice with the front leg and then once with the back leg always maintaining the half stance should bring us close to him dangerously fast. This is the essence of movement as practiced in Karate, Shuri Te, Naha Te and all Okinawan forms of martial arts . Upon exhaustion, breathe slowly without making the heavy breathing noises. This will deceive the enemy into thinking that we are not still not exhausted and will be wary . That shold give us some valuable time to recharge.
Waging War ( Chapter 2) : Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, there is no cleverness in long delays
No fight should last beyond ten minutes. If it does, then we are in serious trouble of being on the losing side. The thrust of the punch and the kick comes from an inner energy boost which on quick succession will cause quick drain . A few maneuvers should do the job. If not, nothing else will and retreating will be the wise man’s bitter pill.
Energy(Chapter 5) : In all fighting, direct methods may be used for joining a battle, but indirect methods are used for securing a victory.
Markedly interesting are the differences in the martial arts followed in Japan as compared to that followed in then contemporary China and the Ryukyu Kingdom ( the land of the Karate ) . Many dominant Japanese forms of martial arts like Jujitsu and Aikido emphasize an “indirect” way of attack rather than a full on attack maneuver . While Jujitsu highlights the key to victory being swashbuckling throws and grappling techniques, Aikido is the more graceful art with only the right amount of energy being used at the right time to topple over an opponent. The defender goes with the attackers body momentum as a continual flow of energy rather than opposing it and then uses it to route it back .
Maneuvering( Chapter 
: We may take it that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without its provisions is lost; without bases of supply is lost
No successful move or maneuver can ever be performed without understanding the recharging stations of the kicks, blocks and punches. No attack can last or go through a trained man’s block without pullback or recoil at the right time . This is the sanctum sanctorum rule especially important for hard style techniques like the KungFu, Karate and Taekwondo today.
These are but some of the direct correlations between the wise counsel of Sun Tzu in The Art of War and the modern martial art techniques in existence. It may not take me one blog or a hundred blogs following it to highlight such stark similarities. My intent here is to get you interested into understanding the ideas and strategies suggested and how every thing else trickles down from it .
May the wise counsel prevail.
Khudahafeez
Kaashif
