The Essential Framework for Understanding The Art of War

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You heard about The Art of War, and it sounded pretty cool. So you picked up a copy to read. But you found that, beyond a few of its famous maxims, a lot of this text attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu was hard to understand, much less incorporate into your life. My guest offers a tripartite framework that can help you get a lot more out of The Art of War. His name is Jim Gimian, and he's an editor of one of the text's translations as well as the co-author of The Rules of Victory: How to Transform Chaos and Conflict—Strategies from The Art of War. Today on the show, Jim argues that The Art of War is a holistic, interconnected text that's about how to approach conflict and obstacles in a holistic, interconnected way. Underlying this approach are three dynamics: Heaven, Earth, and General, which correspond to View, Practice, and Action. Jim and I talk about the importance of constantly orienting and reorienting yourself to an ever-changing world, working with the shih, or energy, in the landscape you're navigating, using action to further refine your perspective, and more.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Paret McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:11.8	You heard about the Art of War and it sounded pretty cool.
0:14.8	So you picked up a copy to read.
0:16.4	But you found that, beyond a few of its famous maxims, a lot of this text attributed the
0:20.7	ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Zhu was hard to understand, much less incorporating
0:25.6	to your life.
0:27.0	My guest offers a tripartite framework that can help you get a lot more out of the Art
0:30.7	of War.
0:31.7	His name is Jim Gimian and he's an editor of one of the text translations, as well as
0:35.4	the co-author of The Rules of Victory, How to Transform Chaos and Conflict, Strategies
0:40.2	from the Art of War.
0:41.3	Today on the show, Jim argues that the Art of War is a holistic, interconnected text that's
0:46.4	about how to approach conflict and obstacles in a holistic, interconnected way.
0:50.9	In line, this approach are three dynamics, heaven, earth, and general, which correspond
0:56.0	to view, practice, and action.
0:58.9	Jim and I talk about the importance of constantly orienting and reorienting yourself to an
1:02.6	ever-changing world, working with the sure or energy in the landscape you're navigating,
1:07.4	using action to further refine your perspective, and more.
1:10.8	After the show's over, check out our show notes at a-wim.ias-art of war.
1:20.9	All right, Jim Gimian, welcome to the show.
1:31.8	Hey, thanks, Brett.
1:33.7	Thanks for inviting me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Art of Manliness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Art of Manliness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.