[lit-ideas] "Martial Arts": a pictorial-cum-literary guide (Western)

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:39:03 EDT

I was quoting Helm quoting Sun Tzu, "The Art of War" 
 
>"To subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest  of
>excellence."

Thanks for the reference.
 
As this is 'Oriental', it would possibly not relate to anything I can  
'conceive'. But I'm still curious. Even the _language_ now seems too 'foreign'  
to 
me.
 
"subjugate" I cannot think what Sun Tzu was thinking about. In Latin, or  the 
classical languages, or even English, 'subjugate' is a pretty _strong_ verb,  
in the sense that there is an implication (and not mere 'implicature') of  
_aggression_. Aggression, you know, can be 'verbal', or 'semiotic' (as in the  
woman in Helm's poem displaying tactics and following strategies). 
 
I don't think it's clear to me how the enemy can be 'subjugated' without  
giving battle. I can think of the Conquistadores and the Native Indians,  
perhaps. But notice that Sun Tzu speaks of the 'enemy's army':
 
    To subjugate the enemy's army 
     without doing battle 
    is the highest of excellence."

So, we have to  assume an 'enemy' (again a word charged with implications, 
and not just  implicatures, of 'negativity' -- Latin, non-amicus', in-amicus' 
-- 
hence the  Shakespearianism, "Friend or foe?" "Neither". 
 
If we grant that to subjugate the army of the enemy is a form of abuse or  
violence, then the 'without doing battle' comes as a typical Oriental  
paradoxical contradiction -- and possibly just means, "without any fatal loss 
on  _our_ 
side".
 
"the highest of excellence" I'm not so sure. I believe that for Westerners  
-- or Western soldiers, and Sun Tzu was possibly just a philosopher, not an  
Oriental 'soldier' --, there is something of physicality in the battle thing  
that is 'irrepleaceable'. 
 
I'm surprised that the Orientals, who are credited with most of the  "Martial 
Arts" (practised by American nowadays, and at too an early age -- just  
another commodity for having the children away from the individualist parents  
who 
can thus do as they please) should say something like that.
 
For the Greeks -- the Romans, and all Western Civilisation onwards --  
including the Norman Brits who 'sacked' places like Library of Alexandria 
during  
the Crusades -- there was some sort of 'fighting' in giving battle.

Note that even the Victorians would _love_ to bring 'battle' into the  Holy 
Sunday gatherings with "Fight the good fight" and (worst of all), "Onward,  
Christian soldiers, marching onto War".
 
Talk of 'army', 'enemy', implies a BATTLE, and thus some kind of abuse or  
violence (subjugation). So it's not clear what Sun Tzu is supposed to be  
teaching us here from his High Clouds of Oriental Wisdom.
 
Cheers,
 
JL
 






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[lit-ideas] "Martial Arts": a pictorial-cum-literary guide (Western)

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