One Hundred Unorthodox Strategies – 13. Love (Ai 愛)

Whenever engaging an enemy in combat, if the officers and troops would rather advance unto death than retreat and live, it is always because the commander’s solicitude and beneficence have brought it about. When the Three Armies know that their superiors love them as sincerely as their sons, they will love their commanders as fervently as their fathers and penetrate deadly terrain without begrudging their deaths in order to repay their commander’s virtue. A tactical principle from the Art of War states: “When one regards the people as beloved children, they will be willing to die with you.”

(Translation by Ralph D. Sawyer)

Notes:

• The title “Love” (ai 愛) means “be partial to,“
“be fond of,“ and “care for.“

• The quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War is from chapter 10, Terrain (Di Xing 地形), paragraph 25, in the translation of Giles (1910): “Look on them [i.e. the soldiers] as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”

Original Text:

凡與敵戰，士卒寧進死，而不肯退生者，皆將恩惠使然也。三軍知在上之人愛我如子之至，則我之愛上也如父之極。故陷危亡之地，而無不願死以報上之德。法曰：「視民如愛子，故可與之俱死。」

Historical Illustration:

According to the Grand Historian’s Records by Sima Qian, the famous general Wu Qi 吳起, a.k.a. Master Wu (Wu Zi 吳子, 440-381 BCE), “wore the same clothes and ate the same food as officers and men of the lowest rank. When sleeping he did not spread out a mat, and when marching he did not ride a horse or carriage. He carried his own provisions and shared his officers’ and men’s labors and hardships. One of his foot soldiers suffered from an abscess; Wu Qi sucked it clean for him. When the soldier’s mother heard this she wailed. A man said, “Your son is a foot soldier, and the general himself sucked his abscess clean. What are you wailing for?” The mother replied, “It is not what you think. Last year Master Wu sucked his father’s abscess clean and his father fought without turning until he died before the enemy. Now Master Wu has sucked my son’s abscess clean too, but I do not know where my son will die. This is why I wail.” Because of Wu Qi’s skill in commanding troops, his integrity and impartiality, and his ability to win his men’s total loyalty, Marquis Wen appointed him Governor of the region Xihe 西河.”