Basic Principles Common to Most of the Ancient Asian Military Texts
- Submitted by: pgmarcotte
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- Category: History: Asian
- Date Submitted: 04/02/2011 01:05 PM
- Pages: 5
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There are cultural characteristic of war, but there isn’t a defined distinctive way of war between Non-westerns, Asian or Chinese ways of war. The differences between Non-western and the Western are more ideology based. The multi-cultural landscapes in Asia gave way to many different styles and beliefs on war. The development of asymmetric strategy and tactics took divergent paths in the East and West. Depending upon which theorist one analyzes, each aspect gives a fundamental direction of war. The basic principals of war were still evident. The fact that battles were no less evident in China as in ancient Mediterranean or Medieval Europe shows the different styles but the same principals. The primary principals of war are: Win without fighting, avoid strength and attack weakness, speed and preparation, shaping the enemy, character-based leadership and deception and foreknowledge, win at the lowest possible cost.
Developing first in the East, asymmetric methods have dominated Eastern military theory. In the East, strategists developed concepts along a much different line than their Western counterparts. Eastern warfare, from its earliest beginnings in Sun-Tzu’s, Art of War, written in the fifth century B.C., to the more recent work of Mao Zedong and Vo Nguyen Giap, has emphasized defeating an adversary with minimal direct combat. In distinctive contrast, Western theorists have given emphasis to the significance of a direct confrontation between opposing armies. Western warfare developed a distinct bias in favor of the decisive battle described in Carl von Clausewitz On War. Conflict in the West has, however, seen the development of strategic and tactical doctrine similar to those dominated Eastern military thought.
The Art of War was revolutionary in principles and Sun-Tzu was the first strategist to develop a systematic theory on warfare, which encourage radically altering warfare, and rejecting conventional tactics. Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, the...
Developing first in the East, asymmetric methods have dominated Eastern military theory. In the East, strategists developed concepts along a much different line than their Western counterparts. Eastern warfare, from its earliest beginnings in Sun-Tzu’s, Art of War, written in the fifth century B.C., to the more recent work of Mao Zedong and Vo Nguyen Giap, has emphasized defeating an adversary with minimal direct combat. In distinctive contrast, Western theorists have given emphasis to the significance of a direct confrontation between opposing armies. Western warfare developed a distinct bias in favor of the decisive battle described in Carl von Clausewitz On War. Conflict in the West has, however, seen the development of strategic and tactical doctrine similar to those dominated Eastern military thought.
The Art of War was revolutionary in principles and Sun-Tzu was the first strategist to develop a systematic theory on warfare, which encourage radically altering warfare, and rejecting conventional tactics. Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, the...