Sun Tzu and the Lesson of the Concubines

Duc Pham, School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Birmingham

On my second visit to Wuhan University of Technology, my ever-generous host kindly gave me a leather-bound copy of a translation of Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’. This short tome of just some 11,000 words (7,000 in the original Chinese version) contains a wealth of timeless advice on strategies that have proved invaluable to many a military and business leader. It was a particularly fitting gift for me as I was at the University in a ‘strategic scientist’ capacity.

Inscribed on bamboo strips around 25 centuries ago, The Art of War is probably the oldest strategy book ever written. Although I had not read the book, I had come across Master Sun’s words of wisdom previously. As a young boy, I had been taught by my father to strive to know in depth my opponents’ as well as my own strengths and weaknesses to ensure success in any competition. In the Master’s own words, ‘if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general in the period of the Warring States around 400 BC. At that time across China, local warlords constantly waged war against one another to fight for their shares of the remnants of the collapsed Chou Empire. I remember the story about Sun Tzu being challenged by a warlord to apply his famous war doctrine to train 180 women from the warlord’s palace into an orderly company. Among the women, two were the warlord’s favourite concubines. Sun Tzu divided the women into two groups and put a concubine in command of each.

Sun Tzu then set the women a simple drill and made sure they understood what to do. However, when he started ordering them to perform the drill, the women burst out in laughter. He tried again with the same result. Sun Tzu claimed that this failure of the troops to obey was the fault of the commanders. So, despite the warlord’s pleas, he ordered the two concubines beheaded as an example for the rest of the company. Thereafter, the women did not utter a single sound and performed the drill exactly as commanded.

The long flight back to the UK from Wuhan gave me a perfect opportunity to study Sun Tzu’s book in detail and reflect on its deeper meanings for academic leadership. As much as I wanted to, I did not find the story of the concubines in any of the 13 chapters of the book. That story was probably a graphic invention by Sun Tzu’s followers to illustrate the application of some of the Master’s principles: the need for a leader to be courageous (Paragraph 9, Chapter 1 and Paragraph 3, Chapter 8), maintain discipline (Paragraph 13, Chapter 1 and Paragraph 16, Chapter 4), act decisively (Paragraph 14, Chapter 5) and behave in an upright and just manner (paragraph 35, Chapter 11).

Many more principles can be discovered in the book. The majority if not all of them — such as the importance of having a clear vision, strong strategy and sound organisation structure — should be simple truths well familiar to the modern-day leader. Interpreted intelligently, rather than taken literally, they should still be valid and useful today, 2,500 years since Master Sun wrote The Art of War.

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