Sun Tzu and Deioces
SUNTZUDO FACEBOOK
BOOKS AT
AMAZON.COM
SMASHWORDS.COM
Herodotus in his first Book of History (1.96-101), talks of Deioces, who was a living, breathing example of how the laws of war, as laid down by Sun Tzu, were used to gain ultimate victory. This account may not be considered historically reliable. The date of his reign is thought to have spanned most of the first half of the 7th century B.C.E. However it is a rare piece of history that tells of a man who became king without going to war or even fighting one pitched battle. Herodotus speaks of man who believed that the sword is not the only road to power.
4.8. To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.
4.13. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
Herodotus tells a tale of man who definitely knew victory while the common herd did not and that he conquered an enemy that was already defeated.
It is a tale of a man who was elected King and ruled for fifty-three years and had his son assume the crown. A remarkable tale, of how a man must have understood applied and lived the content of the thirteen chapters for a life time. The tale is also remarkable if you note that during this time of history and the centuries that followed we are have numerous tales of how other men rose to power and they all used armies, fought pitched battles and demonstrated that while they understood the Art of War principals to win a war, none of them came close to understand what Sun Tzu wrote in chapter three:
1.1. Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
1.2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
1.3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
So how did he do it? What is the story of Deioces? According to Herodotus, Deioces was a low born man who created a reputation for delivering fair and impartial judgements for his fellow Medes. From this reputation he became the Judge of his village. In a lawless period, this would have been a very dangerous occupation and he would have to have been very deliberate and thoughtful in everything he did but he also knew that he would always be in high demand. As time passed his reputation spread to other villages, more and more Medes came to him for judgement and it reached a point where he stopped giving advice. Deioces argued that it was and said that he would determine causes no more, for it was not ”profitable for him to neglect his own affairs and to determine causes for his neighbours all through the day”.
At this point of the tale let’s have a look at some of the Sun Tzu principals Deioces would have understood.
1.26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
Deioces like any general or sovereign have to make good decisions and lots of them. The unique point here is that Deioces chose the vocation of being a judge to that of a general to achieve his goal of becoming king.
10.24. The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.
Ironically, Deioces rose to become “the jewel of the kingdom” by trying not to be the “the jewel of the kingdom”. So what was the underlying dynamic Deioces employing up to this point? He was forming an alliance with the Medes in general and laying the ground work for the Medes to form an alliance with each other and then to form the ultimate alliance with him at a future point in time. So what did Sun Tzu write in regards to alliances?
7.2. We cannot enter into alliance with neighbouring princes until we are acquainted with their designs. We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country—its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps. We shall be unable to turn natural advantages to account unless we make use of local guides.
It would seem that Deioces knew the designs of his neighbours and his neighbours were completely in the dark to his. The face of the county was the people and the lawless nature of Mede.
7.5. Hence he does not strive to ally himself with all and sundry, nor does he foster the power of other states. He carries out his own secret designs, keeping his antagonists in awe. Thus he is able to capture their cities and overthrow their kingdoms.
Deioces did not foster the power of other states as he wanted to be the state. He carried out his own secret design by using his judgements to keep all in awe of him and his abilities. In so doing he captured their minds and guided them to offer him his kingdom.
7.6. Bestow rewards without regard to rule, issue orders without regard to previous arrangements; and you will be able to handle a whole army as though you had to do with but a single man.
Eventually by his decisions he was able to handle all and sundry as if they were but a single man.
7.7. Confront your soldiers with the deed itself; never let them know your design. When the outlook is bright, bring it before their eyes; but tell them nothing when the situation is gloomy.
No doubt he would have used his best decisions to promote and enhance his reputation and forward his plans and kept very quiet whenever he made a mistake.
7.8. Place your army in deadly peril and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off in safety.
Not only was Deioces his own man but his own army until he could gather around himself others who would protect him. So at times he must have plunged himself and those around him into some desperate straits, yet they all came out in safety.
11.35 It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order.
This statement seems to sum up Deioces perfectly. It seems he also understood these two ideas:
1.18. All warfare is based on deception.
1.20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
He knew he couldn’t let the populace know he wanted to be king and he had to convince them that they wanted him to be king without him advocating such a thought. The bait he held out was law and order, justice. He feigned disorder by retreating from giving judgements claiming he had to look after his own affairs knowing lawlessness would return and the people having a taste for a better way would want it back. When he saw how bad they wanted him to return he crushed them by accepting their offer for him to be their king.
7.1. Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign.
7.2. Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
7.3. After that, comes tactical manoeuvring, than which there is nothing more difficult. The difficulty of tactical manoeuvring consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.
The result of Deioces withdrawing his services resulted in even more lawlessness than before according to Herodotus 1.97. in time the Medes convened some kind of meeting to determine that they needed a king and that Deioces should be that king.
Now Deioces had what he wanted, a kingdom. What he had to do now was to secure it. He had blended and harmonized the different elements and now was the time to pitch his camp. He ordered the Medes to build him a palace befitting a king. Deioces had achieved his victory without one single battle and no war. He had applied all of the tenets of the Art of War by Sun Tzu without ever knowing of its existence!
3.2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
4.2. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
6.26. How victory may be produced for them out of the enemy’s own tactics—that is what the multitude cannot comprehend.
Winning without fighting, but by outthinking your opponent is the core of all Sun Tzu’s teachings. By the three above quotes, we can see that Deioces clearly understood and was able to enact the laws referred to by Sun Tzu. Deioces did not take a kingdom using these tenets he created and held one for fifty-three years.
Then he ordered them to provide him with a bodyguard of his choice from all the Medes. This made him the most secure individual in the country and from here Deioces could the move to the next stage of securing his reign. Surrounded by his bodyguard in his secure and magnificent palace he could attend to “turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain”.
10.1. Sun Tzu said: We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit: (1) Accessible ground; (2) entangling ground; (3) temporizing ground; (4) narrow passes; (5) precipitous heights; (6) positions at a great distance from the enemy.
11.6. Ground which forms the key to three contiguous states, so that he who occupies it first has most of the Empire at his command, is a ground of intersecting highways.
Understanding what Sun Tzu wrote, Diocese then ordered a city be built around his palace, Agbatana. This was the city above all else. By controlling this city he could command the whole kingdom and keep himself and his family secure. Deioces had to create the “ground of intersecting highways” so he could occupy it and so cement his control of the kingdom.
1.18. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength.
It seems Deioces was a master at this; it was his central tactic to his overall strategy. At each step he demonstrated that he could take a weakness and turn it to his advantage. Right from the start he recognised that the lawlessness and unfairness would be the battleground on which he would win a throne. So he displayed the qualities that would appeal to the Medes to be the solution to their problems.
1.3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
1.4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
1.5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
1.7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
1.8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
1.9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
1.10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
By demonstrating the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness, he built Moral Law, conquered Heaven and Earth, became the commander and sovereign. Now he had to secure his kingdom by method and discipline. Not only would have Deioces applied Moral Law to his army but also to his government. As he was not sovereign as well as commander he would have known that to keep control over those he appointed to run the necessary parts of government. A government is simply the better known army in peace time, but an army nonetheless.
4.2. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Knowing the he could provide the means of an enemy overthrowing his crown and kingdom, Deioces retreated behind his walls and “ordained that none should enter into the presence of the king”. He dealt with his subjects through messengers and defined how those in his presence would behave without exception.
He also set about maintaining justice and in this Herodotus says he was severe. Here are some of what Sun Tzu had to say about this.
4.16. The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success.
9.42. If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attached to you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be unless.
9.43. Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline. This is a certain road to victory.
9.44. If in training soldiers commands are habitually enforced, the army will be well-disciplined; if not, its discipline will be bad
Deioces knew that just as law, order and discipline is essential in an army at war, it is just as important in a government in peace.
13.5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.
13.6. Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
13.18. Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.
13.27. Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results. Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army’s ability to move.
13.4. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
Herodotus also states “if he heard that any one was behaving in an unruly manner, he sent for him and punished him according as each act of wrong deserved, and he had watchers and listeners about all the land over which he ruled”. So it would seem that Deioces also knew the importance of and how to use spies.
So this man Deioces united the tribes of Medes into a kingdom and passed the crown to his son. He did so without wars and battles but with a strategy that Sun Tzu would have been proud of. It may be that the man Herodotus speaks of may never have lived however maybe he did and we can learn from one of the earliest instances of a real case of victory without fighting. Lets quickly run a few more quotes from the master over the legend of Deioces:
7.11. What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.
We don’t know if Deioces won with ease all the time or if ever however one could easily imagine him putting forward this image to enhance his reputation.
7.12. Hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage.
Maybe this is why only Herodotus ever wrote about Deioces, and other historians don’t write of other examples. This kind of legend simply did not fit into the mentality of the times.
7.13. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
Hard to believe that Deioces never made a mistake in his life. We will never know for sure of course as there is simply not enough information to make a credible judgement. If he did make mistakes he obviously knew how to recover.
Deioces embodied the following principles. He would have faced and mastered each of the five principles listed next.
3.17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
In closing there is one quote I have to address:
3.18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Maybe the lesson we would like to learn is that if you understand this quote - you can be successful over a lifetime without ever having to go to war or fight endless, costly battles. You may not create or conquer a kingdom but you can be successful.
3.2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
This being the case, Deioces was a sage of the highest order, for this is what he did and we must thank Herodotus for writing about him.
Translation: Lionel Giles 1910
Herodotus and Deioces references
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/deioces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deioces