Quotation
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“Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.”
Sunzi (Sun Tzu) · Military strategy · Ancient · traditional Warring States text; Giles's English 1910
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that victory is largely decided by calculations made before anyone fights, in the ruler's temple, weighing the factors set out in the chapter. A competing reading hears a guarantee that planning produces winning, whereas the text says many calculations beat few, not that a plan abolishes chance and the enemy's plans. It closes the opening chapter's list of estimates. The temple is the ancestral hall where the serious reckoning happens, not a metaphor for positive thinking.
Did Sunzi (Sun Tzu) really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A genuine line from the text, given in English translation. Wording differs between translators.
Where it comes from
The Art of War, chapter 1
Approximate date: traditional Warring States text; Giles's English 1910.
How to use it
The person who wins a difficult meeting has often done the dull work the night before: the numbers, the other side's likely objection, the thing they themselves are weak on. That is the temple, a kitchen table rather than a shrine. Many calculations are not the same as a feeling of being ready, and the chapter would count the scribbled comparison, and it would not count a mood.
A mindset reading
The habit is to move the work to before the encounter, and to make it a comparison rather than a hope. Ask how many real calculations you have made, and how many the other side is likely to have made. The sentence is about that imbalance, and it is not a promise that forethought is omniscience.
Understand the philosophy
The chapter answers where a victorious campaign is settled. Calculations, in the temple, compare the five constant factors and the seven elements the opening has listed, from moral influence to discipline. The general who makes many of them defeats the one who makes few. The key place is before the battle, and the Art of War's single author is historically uncertain, and Giles's English remains the line's usual door into English.
- knowledge
- power
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that victory is largely decided by calculations made before anyone fights, in the ruler's temple, weighing the factors set out in the chapter. A competing reading hears a guarantee that planning produces winning, whereas the text says many calculations beat few, not that a plan abolishes chance and the enemy's plans. It closes the opening chapter's list of estimates. The temple is the ancestral hall where the serious reckoning happens, not a metaphor for positive thinking.
Did Sunzi (Sun Tzu) really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A genuine line from the text, given in English translation. Wording differs between translators.
Which work is it in?
The Art of War, chapter 1 Approximate date: traditional Warring States text; Giles's English 1910.