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J'ai eu la flemme de tout traduire mais bon...c'est quant même de l'anglais de base donc vous pourrez très bien vous débrouiller sinon il y a la boîte à mail pour des
réclamations.Pardon pour ceux qui comprennent pas et bravo pour les autres ,Sun Tzu serait fier de vous !!
Book ReviewHuang, J.H., trans.
New York: William Morrow, 1993, 299 pp.
The study of Sun Tzu's The Art of War began a renaissance of sorts after the discovery in 1972 in an ancient tomb near Linyi in Shandong of a text of that classic that antedated, by perhaps a millennium, the versions previously known. Although the discovery has confirmed the historicity of much about Sun Tzu that had previously been doubted, the new text has also provided impetus for new translations.
One of the new translations has been produced by J.H. Huang, a California-based scholar whose previous book, written in Chinese, explored the origins and changing meanings of Chinese characters. For those accustomed to the standard version of The Art of War by General Samuel B. Griffith, USMC, published in 1963, much in Huang's translation will be striking, even disconcerting. To give just one example, the key term shi (used in the title of the fifth book): Griffith read it as "energy," but Huang translates it as "combat power." To make things even more confusing, another new translation, by Professor Roger Ames of the University of Hawaii, with whom Huang is bound to be compared, renders the same character as "strategic advantage."
This disagreement is more than a matter of philological or semantic quibbling. It brings us to one of the fundamental questions about Chinese "strategic culture." Some interpreters are impressed by the differences between western and Chinese ways of thinking about war. They note that the lack of attention to force (li a character that occurs only nine times in the thirteen chapters of the book) emphasizes the extent to which Sun Tzu makes warfare a matter of psychology. Broadly, they place him in the world of Taoist philosophy, with its conviction that only by moving with "the way" can human success, including military success, be secured. More narrowly, they look at his emphasis on intelligence, assessments, and deception (gui), based on psychological insight.
But many people (military specialists not least) are reluctant to accept the idea that war is really all that different from culture to culture. They would argue that force is force and violence is violence, whether one is in Sun Tzu's China or Napoleon's Europe. Huang manifests some sympathy for this line of interpretation in his rendition of shi as "combat power." He is, furthermore, on solid ground philologically: usages contained in the ancient etymological treatise the Shuowen and other classics show the word meaning something like force or power as understood in the West, whether latent (as in a set crossbow) or unleashed (as in a flood so powerful as to sweep boulders along).
Nonspecialists in Chinese will probably be impatient with this sort of close linguistic analysis, but it has a real point. The choice of translation for shi is only one of a number of possible examples that mark Huang's Sun Tzu as, in modern terms, a rather "realist" reading. Whether, as such, it can capture all of the implications and resonances of the text is a matter for scholars to debate For the general reader, however, it has one great advantage: the realist approach to Sun Tzu helps to dispel the air of exoticism that sometimes envelops Oriental military classics. It is probably not coincidental that Huang is the son of a Republic of China air force colonel and presumably did military service himself.
Huang presents his text in double columns, in modern English; on the right are the translated words of Sun Tzu, and on the left is Huang's analysis. An introduction and extensive notes further clarify the text. however, Huang's publishers have done him a real disservice by omitting Chinese characters in his work--Ames's publishers saw fit to include them. A desk-top computer can now handle Chinese graphics, so there is no excuse for a leading publisher not to provide them in a book of this quality.
On peut en
condenser certaines pensées:
SUN TZU AND THE ART OF (BUSINESS) WAR
By: F.W. Rustmann, Jr.
More than 2,500 years ago Sun Tzu wrote about the "Art OfWar." He said: "To remain in ignorance of theenemy’s condition, simply because one grudges the outlay ofa hundred ounces of silver...is the height of inhumanity."
I would substitute the word inhumanity with stupidity.
He said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, youneed not fear the result of a hundred battles." But,"If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you willsuccumb in every battle."
The military advice that Sun Tzu espoused so long ago appliesequally to today’s business. Know yourself, know your enemyand, he adds, know your battlefield. Armed with this knowledge,you cannot lose -- the worse that can happen is that you decidenot to engage.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
In today’s highly competitive business world it isbecoming more and more important to know your competition -- knowyour enemy -- and, particularly in the international arena, knowyour battlefield. There are minefields out there, and it isincreasingly important to identify and avoid them. If the terrainis against you, you can still lose, despite having superiorforces.
Every major country on earth recognizes the need forintelligence and employs an intelligence service to collect itfor them. Every army on earth collects information on opposingforces and terrain.
It follows that American businesses should do the same,particularly abroad where the terrain is less familiar, the rulesof engagement are different and the competition has the homefieldadvantage.
Then why do so many companies neglect this aspect ofcompetition and try to wing it? Simply put, they think their ownin-house efforts are sufficient (they can obtain competitiveintelligence themselves through their own networks) and they areoften reluctant to spend additional funds to collect informationthey think they can get by without.
OBJECTIVITY IS THE KEY
The craft of intelligence gathering and analysis issufficiently arcane that it should be left to the experts. CIAcase officers, for example, spend more than a year in formalintelligence training courses before being released to employtheir skills abroad. Part of what they learn is to evaluatesources of information, and to report that information back homeobjectively and dispassionately.
Unless companies can somehow assure the objectivity of theinformation it collects through its own resources, the activityis doomed from the outset. The problem lies in training,resources and vested interests. Company personnel are usually nottrained in collection techniques, the companies do not have therequisite resources (data banks, personal contacts overseas,etc.) to collect the information it needs, and, finally,employees with a stake in the output, whatever it is, of acompany usually lack the objectivity to report informationaccurately, without bias. They tend to paint rosy pictures toprotect their jobs or to please their superiors. This isprecisely why professional consultants from outside theorganization must be called in.
THE OLDEST PROFESSION
Espionage has often been called the world’s second oldestprofession. But there are those who believe it really is theoldest. After all, they argue, someone had to be around to tellthe Johns where to go and how much to expect to pay!
The value of thorough, objective intelligence has beenrecognized since time immemorial; those who knew this fact weresuccessful, those who didn’t were the losers.
Back around 500 BC, Sun Tzu knew about the importance ofcollecting intelligence to know one’s enemy. The same thingapplies in today’s corporate world where the importance ofknowing the operating environment and the competition cannot beoverstated. It is the key to success.
Research and Reinterpretation by J.H. Huang
299 pp, New York: William Morrow, 1993.
Popularly known as The Art of War, Sun-Tzu is one of the leading books onstrategic thinking ever to be written. While other books on strategy, wisdom, andphilosophy come and go, both leaders and gentle contemplators alike have embraced thewritings of Sun-Tzu.
Sun-Tzu lived in Qi, China, and was a contemporary of Confucius. One of thechief military strategists for the state of Wu, he enjoyed much success in his lifetime.His words have lasted and flourished beyond the empires and battles for which they wereoriginally written.
This translation of Sun-Tzu is based on manuscripts recently discoveredin Linyi, China, that predate all previous texts by as much as one thousand years. Intranslating the text, researcher and interpreter J.H. Huang traced the roots of thelanguage to before 221 B.C. to get to the original intent. Huang adds an introduction tothe history behind Sun-Tzu and his own comments on the meaning of the text.
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