Asian 302: Art of War in Ancient China Chong Wei Wong
The victorious army first realizes the conditions for victory
In Chapter 4, Sun-tzu says, “The victorious army first realizes the conditions for victory, and then seeks to engage in battle.” Describe in detail what he seems to have in mind here.
In the assertion, “The victorious army first realizes the conditions for victory, and then seeks to engage in battle (Sawyer p. 165).” Sun Tzu seems to have in mind that the success or failure of a battle, before it is engaged, lies not in the enemies hands but in one’s own—as Sun Tzu said, “being unconquerable lie with yourself; being conquerable lies with the enemy (p. 165).” This is true to the extent that victory is not only concerned with the efficient application of fully force to defeat the enemy after a battle is engaged, but rather, even before engagement of a battle, the victorious army makes full exploitation of potential force that is embedded in the configuration of an battle and the impending dynamics that will unfold, before even engaging in the battle, such that as soon as a battle is engaged, he cannot be defeated because there is no disposition or configuration that can make possible his defeat that is not either already rendered impossible because the position is already first taken or that it is covered by his complete plan of action. In effect, to first establish the condition of victory, to configure oneself in an undefeatable position is equivalent establishing constraint on the enemy position to defeat you. The attempt to first realizing the conditions of victory before engaging in a battle is similar to configuring all the necessary conditions to secure a checkmate in Western Chess games—the configuration realized at the move that is penultimate to the checkmate is equivalent to realizing all the potential forces embedded in the configuration of the strategic positions of different pieces allowing for the checkmate—the impending dynamics that will unfold is already predictable, conditions of victory is established, perhaps even unknown to the opponent, before the checkmate is engaged. When the checkmate is announced, just a battle is engaged—one establishes himself in the position where he cannot be defeated. Therefore, just as checkmate can only be announced when all conditions of victory is first secured, the victorious army seeks victory before even engaging in the battle. The importance of the condition of victory as well as the point of engagement is emphasized. I believe this is what Sun Tzu have in mind here.
