As a top work that reveals the laws of competition, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" shows the "light of reason" that guides people out of the maze of modern competition. This "light of reason" is demonstrated through a series of profound strategic concepts such as "conquering strength with wisdom", "conquering strength with softness", and "victory without fighting". Profound philosophical concepts such as "human unity" are displayed.

The influence of this masterpiece has gone far beyond the country, making many famous foreign strategists intoxicated in the profound and profound traditional Chinese strategic culture.

This masterpiece not only crosses national boundaries, but also transcends time and space. As British Air Marshal John Slesser said in the article "China's Military Proverbs": "The fascinating thing about Sun Tzu is how amazingly up-to-date his ideas are - by slightly changing some words and phrases, his maxims It’s like it was written just yesterday.”

This famous book is no longer a war book in the simple sense, but has become a must-read for leaders in various fields of politics, economics, and diplomacy. Sun Tzu's ideas have been widely used not only in the modern military field but also in various fields such as politics, economics, diplomacy, and sports. In this wide range of applications, people not only gain inspiration from the profound thoughts of the ancients, but also inject the vitality of the new era into Sun Tzu's Art of War.

1. The current application status of Sun Tzu's Art of War

The current application status of Sun Tzu's Art of War is first reflected in its extremely high popularity rate. According to relevant media reports: "The Art of War" has been translated as "The Art of War" in the West. In the world's largest online bookstore "Amazon", there are currently as many as 102 titles related to "Sun Tzu". Among them, the paperback version of "The Art of War" translated by Samuel Griffiths and published by Oxford University Press in 1986 is the most popular (see picture), and it has always been at the top of the bookstore's science bestseller list. According to the Los Angeles Times, this version of "The Art of War" sold 16,000 copies within a month after the "9.11" incident. Friends who often go abroad will find that the counters of bookstores in many airports are filled with "Sun Tzu's Art of War". You can also see many people reading "Sun Tzu's Art of War" in places waiting for flights or buses.

A famous American-Chinese writer said: "With the vigorous development of China's economy, American business people are becoming more and more curious about China's thousand-year-old "Sun Tzu's Art of War". How to use Sun Tzu's Art of War has become a Westerners explore another secret to success in shopping malls. Under the business book section of major picture stores in the United States, there are numerous explanations and insights from "Sun Tzu's Art of War" by different authors, even when giving lectures to American business school students. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" has just been mentioned to me, and a small quotation from "Sun Tzu's Art of War" has been held up by American students."

(1) Application of Sun Tzu's Art of War in the military field

< p>Sun Tzu's Art of War has been widely used in modern military fields. Many well-known military analysts in the world believe that nearly 2,500 years after the death of Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese military thinker, is profoundly affecting the modern battlefield. According to relevant reports: Since the late 1970s, the United States has held thousands of lectures on "The Art of War" among Department of Defense officials and US military officers. General Kelly, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps, believes that "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is the foundation of all maneuver warfare. He made the book an annual reading for the troops, requiring every Marine to read it.

Recently, an expert named Mark McNeely wrote a book called "Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare". He said: ""Sun Tzu's Art of War" is a must-read book for high-level military students and has been integrated into the military doctrines of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps." The publisher of this book introduced this book to Western readers. , calling "Sun Tzu's Art of War" a "Swiss Army Knife" of military theory, enough to deal with any situation.

James Clavell, an American who translated "The Art of War" said: "If I were the supreme commander, or was elected president or prime minister, I would have to establish it in the form of law: All officers, especially generals, must take the "Thirteen Chapters of Sun Tzu" exam twice a year, one oral exam and one written exam. General officers who fail the exam will be automatically dismissed immediately and no appeal will be allowed. Officers with military ranks will be automatically demoted. ”

After World War II, strategists from Western developed countries once again discovered the great value of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and used its strategic principles to think about practical and difficult strategic issues. Get satisfactory answers and results. For example, some experts formulated a national nuclear strategy based on Sun Tzu's strategic deterrence theory. In his book "Real War", Nixon directly used the ideas of Sun Tzu's Art of War to criticize the United States' strategy of "Mutual Assured Destruction" at that time.

Many modern military theories are based on Sun Tzu's Art of War. When Lieutenant General Richard Lawrence, a famous American strategic theorist and president of the National Defense University, elaborated on "Air-Land Battle - Deep Attack", he believed that the principle on which this combat principle is based is a "strange change" from "The Art of War" and "avoiding the truth and attacking the fictitious". The new version of the United States' 1982 "Outline of War" directly quoted a large number of Sun Tzu's famous sayings on the Art of War. The members of the writing team of this "Battle Outline" conducted careful research on Sun Tzu's Art of War for a long time.

The second chapter of "Military Strategy" published in the United States in 1983 is titled "The Evolution of Military Strategy—The Wisdom of Sun Tzu."

Many strategic decision-makers directly rely on Sun Tzu’s Art of War to think about practical war issues. There is information that when the Gulf War broke out in 1990, there were two books on the desk of US President Bush, one was "The Biography of Caesar" and the other was "The Art of War". According to media reports, during this war, a 90-page English translation of "The Art of War" was shipped to the desert of Saudi Arabia for combatants to read. An American reporter sent back news from the war-filled Gulf battlefield: “Although China has not stationed a single soldier here, there is a mysterious Chinese who personally visits the front line and controls combat operations. He is Sun Tzu from more than 2,500 years ago.

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