Those who are good at fighting cannot stop there. What he wants is the reality of victory. Sun Wu attached importance to the objective conditions of winning or losing the war, and at the same time emphasized the role of people's subjective initiative. On the one hand, he said "impossible to win", on the other hand, he said "possible to win". This is not his self-contradiction. This is his dialectical thought. The value of Sun Wu's military thought lies in that his simple materialistic thought is not associated with mechanical and metaphysical views, but with vivid dialectical views.
Sun Wu initially realized that natural phenomena and social phenomena are not static, but constantly changing, and both sides of the contradiction are not fixed, but can change. The same is true of war, which changes more rapidly and violently than other phenomena. He pointed out: in nature, "the five elements are impermanent, the four seasons are impermanent, and the days are short and the months are long." As one of social phenomena, war is no exception. "Chaos is born of governance, timidity is born of courage, and weakness is born of strength." Opposites can be transformed into each other, and all transformations are carried out under certain conditions. Sun Wu paid attention to actively creating conditions to make the war situation change in his own direction.
In order to create conditions for winning the war, Sun Wu paid attention to the dialectical relationship between centralization and decentralization and fiction and fact. He put forward how to use the relationship between the two sides to control the direction of war development and create favorable conditions for himself. People who are good at fighting always try to make their troops superior in number, strive for the initiative, and win by winning more than less. He said: "The place where we are fighting is unknown. If we don't know the enemy, we will be prepared." If the enemy is more prepared, then our soldiers will be less. "("Virtual Reality ")" When I am invisible, I am an expert and divide the enemy. I specialize in one, the enemy is divided into ten, and if I attack one with ten, I will be outnumbered. Those who can be defeated and widowed by the crowd will fight. "(ditto) He also said:" If we use the method of fighting, we will surround it with ten, attack it with five, and divide it by times. The enemy can fight, less can escape, and cannot be avoided. "(conspiracy to attack) that is to say, we should concentrate our superior forces as much as possible and turn ourselves into reality. At the same time, mobilize and disperse the enemy, so that the enemy can turn reality into emptiness, and then attack the enemy's emptiness with our reality and attack the enemy with our superior forces. If you can't gain an advantage in your own strength, you'd rather run away than fight a decisive battle. Sun Wu believes that his superior strength in number is an important condition for victory. In order to create this condition, we must use various methods to disperse the enemy's forces. This can often keep "outnumbered", make quantitative change into qualitative change, and "win every battle." "
Sun Wu believes that on the basis of certain objective conditions, we must give full play to people's subjective initiative in order to win. This is called "winning without arrogance, losing with grace". The solution is to mobilize the enemy in various ways. He said, "Very few! Very small! As for the intangible. It's amazing! It's amazing! As for silence. Therefore, it can be the life of the enemy. " (Virtual Reality) In other words, make yourself the commander and chief of staff of the enemy.
In this way, we have overcome the mechanism on the issue of war and the idea of passive waiting and inaction, and combined objective conditions with subjective initiative. This fully shows the dialectical thought in Sun Wu's art of war.
Only by destroying the enemy in the war can we save ourselves. So attack first, defense second. Offense can maintain initiative, that is, freedom of military action, which is the lifeblood of the army. Sun Wu is also exposed to this principle. He said: "Therefore, a good soldier can arouse people, not others." That is to say, we should strive for the initiative and avoid passivity, and the war should focus on attack. Sun Wu said: "If you can't win, you can defend yourself. But the winner, attack also. Insufficient rules, more attacks. A good defender hides in nine places and a good attacker moves for more than nine days, so he can protect himself and win the game. " In other words, defense can only make you invincible, and victory requires attack. Defense is not enough to achieve the goal of victory; Attack can win more than enough. If we can take the initiative at both ends of the attack and defense, we can achieve the goal of "self-protection and victory", that is, to save ourselves and destroy the enemy.
Sun Wu put forward these principles of winning the war, but these principles are not a dead formula. He stressed that this principle must be applied flexibly according to specific circumstances. He also studied the mutual transformation between the positive and strange aspects of the use of troops. He said: "All warriors will win by the right combination and surprise." "There are only five or five changes in voice, and it is impossible to win hearing. There are only five colors, and the five-color change is invincible. The taste is only five or five flavors, and it is impossible to win by taste. The war situation is just odd and positive, and odd and positive changes cannot overcome poverty. Odd is like an endless cycle, how can it be poor? " The regular army attacked the enemy from the front, while the commandos attacked the enemy from the side. However, with the change of the enemy's form, regular soldiers can also become strange, and Jones can also become correct. Sun Wu pointed out that "soldiers are like water." "Soldiers have no constant potential, and water is impermanent. Being able to win because of the change of the enemy is also called God. " On the one hand, we should know the principle, on the other hand, we should use it flexibly. This is the dialectical relationship between principle and flexibility.
Sun Wu clearly said: "Soldiers are cunning. So, you can show that you won't, or you don't have to show it. Near is far, far is far. Lure it for profit, take it for chaos, ... attack it unprepared and surprise it. " "Straight" and "Qi" here refer to the enemy. This is because "soldiers are a national event, a place of life and death, and a way to survive." To be kind to the enemy is to be cruel to yourself. Song Xianggong's "benevolence" is a joke about the survival of his country. Sun Wu's military thought and route are diametrically opposed to Song Xianggong's.
Sun Wu's The Art of War scientifically summarizes the general laws of war from the wars in the Spring and Autumn Period, which is rich in materialism and vivid dialectics. It is not only an excellent ancient art book, but also an excellent philosophical work. It is the product of the struggle between two military thoughts and two military routes in the Spring and Autumn Period. It played a very progressive role at that time. Sun Wu's Art of War is a valuable cultural heritage left by China in ancient times.