Submitted by: Submitted by tgonzo78
Views: 458
Words: 1808
Pages: 8
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 09/19/2010 06:04 PM
When we examine close enough what warfare means to the peoples of China and Japan, we see that the motivations behind the conduct of battle are deeply ingrained in the Eastern schools of thought. Eastern philosophy, which is generally contradictory to war itself, is mainly rooted in Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. These particular ways of life focus on the aspect of nonviolence. Ahisma, the respect for any and all living things, is the central focus of the Buddhist way of life. Confucianism, on the other hand, focuses on humanity and moral perfection. Taoism, however, is centrally focused on nature, balance, and wu wei, which is regarded as action through inaction. The one issue that these philosophies seem to agree on is that violence does not only hinder progress, but with it brings forth more problems. Therefore, we must ask how these philosophies could ever meld with the act of warfare.
Since wars are fought and battles do exist, then how are they to be approached? This is the question that must be answered, when it comes to interlacing Eastern philosophy with the ways of war. Two great men that are talked about today, because of their approach to warfare, are China’s military general, Sun Tzu, and Japan’s great samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, and The Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi, may be the greatest war doctrines that have ever come to be. These two men took ideas from the Eastern schools of thought, and applied them to war, the warrior, and to the battlefield. We are going to examine both literary works by these two masters of war, what they have in common, and how they may differ.
The history of Sun Tzu is one that is disputed amongst historians, whether he was an actual man, or a mythological figure. There are several instances in Asian history of people that created fake personas, complete with homes, families and documents, so that they could carry on their government or military work without showing the...