Sun Tzu · Politics

Be Like Water: Adaptation and Formlessness

Sun Tzu’s deepest image is water - which has no fixed shape, flows around every obstacle, seeks the low and weak places, and yet wears away rock: the model of an army that adapts endlessly to circumstance and has no constant form for the enemy to grasp.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Sun Tzu’s model for the ideal army is water. Explain in your own words what it means to ‘be like water’ in strategy, and why formlessness is a strength.

Leads to Laozi.

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