谋攻
The supreme skill is to take the enemy whole without fighting — beat their plans and alliances first; assaulting fortified strength is the worst option. Know both sides, and you are safe.
What this chapter says
Here Sun Tzu ranks the ways to win. To break the enemy's resistance while leaving their country intact is best; to shatter and destroy is inferior. Hence the highest generalship balks the enemy's plans; the next best breaks up their alliances; only then attacking their army in the field; and worst of all, besieging walled cities — a slow, bloody last resort. Match method to the strength ratio: surround a tenfold-weaker foe, divide an enemy half your size, and if outmatched, be able to slip away. Above all comes self-knowledge paired with knowledge of the opponent — 'know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.' Ignorance of either side is the road to defeat.
Key lines
Applied today
The strongest competitive win avoids a costly head-on war — outmaneuver through strategy and partnerships, and undercut a rival's plans and alliances before it ever comes to a bruising fight over the same customers.
Aim for the outcome that settles the conflict without a destructive fight, and never sit down without understanding the other side as thoroughly as your own position — that symmetry of knowledge is where safety lives.