The Art of War and How It Helped Mao Win the War
When winning becomes the only thing in your life, you’d better be prepared to lose everything.
One of my speaking clubs asked me to give a presentation about Sun Tzu, the Master of War. I am so excited.
2500 years ago, one night the king of the Wu Empire got a mysterious visitor. He brought the king a book called “The Thirteen Chapters of War”. No one knew the visitor nor his book before that night. His name was Sun Wu or Sun Tzu. The book was later named “The Art of War”, Sunzi was called the master of war and then the master of literally any sort of battle.
In contrast to the popularity of his book, Sun Tzu remains mysterious until this day. The record of known wars led by him was zero. This makes historians wonder whether Sunzi was just a writer or the alias of a general. His only appearance in history was a chapter in “Shi Ji”, a credited book intent to record history. But it had little to do with war. What happened was Sun Tzu volunteered to train the king’s two hundred concubines. They marched out of the city. Two women were the king’s favorite. They were too proud to listen to Sun Tzu. As result, he ordered to execute them in spite of the king’s plea. After the execution, Sun Tze wrote to the king, “When the general is away, he doesn’t have…
