In my educational career, the most important take away that I have acknowledged from any history class that I have completed- European History, American History, Pre-Modern, etc. – is that history repeats itself. That being said, I think it is extremely important and beneficial to not take certain topics lightly. In a couple of years, hopefully everyone in section 3001 will be commissioning as Navy or Marine Corps officers; therefore, any military lesson we learned should have had some relevance to us so that we know the characteristics of a great leader. We have learned about many solid leaders in many civilizations, but lessons from Sun Tzu, who was a part of the ancient Chinese civilization, stuck with me the most. I believe that that the knowledge I learned from legalism and Sun Zhou’s Art of War in the ancient civilization will be the most useful to me as I graduate that Naval Academy.
Legalism arose as a prominent philosophy in ancient China around 300-200 BCE in the Qin Empire. “Legalism is a classical philosophy that emphasizes the need for order above all other human concerns.” (Dr. Wheeler) It was a belief that as long as there is strong political leadership with a shared vision, then the peace would be preserved. This lesson should not be taken lightly because as future leaders, we should start realizing the importance of communication. If everyone is on the same page, missions should, in theory, get completed successfully and quickly. “Legalism argues that the well-being of the state would be best guaranteed by clear-cut rules rather than any reliance on private morality.” (Kevin Rudd) Although I agree that it is important to have good morals and good intentions, we were often taught in our leadership class how important it was to stick to the mission and only so ever would we have to sway away from the plan.
To this day, The Art of War is often referred to discuss influential strategies that can apply to military warfare. After reading the three chapters that were mandated for our fourth blog, I realized the importance of preparation. You have to learn strategies, not memorize them. If you “know the enemy, and know yourself, the victory is never in doubt.” (Tzu, 19) In a state of uncertainty, one’s mind can fog up and forget what drills they thought they had memorized like the palm of their hands. If they learned and studied the drills, success could have come easy.
We have studied several ancient civilizations that have been ruled by many great leaders, but I hope to carry out the lessons learned from Sun Tzu and the philosophy of ancient China out to the fleet with me.
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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-rudd/chinese-strategic-thoughts_b_6417754.html
The West in the Pre-Modern World 
Anthony Calvelli
I agree that there are some elements of legalism that we should employ as military leaders, but it should not be the only philosophy we follow. Having set rules to maintain order is certainly important, but we also need to have trust in our people and be adaptable. Perhaps, a mix of legalist and confucian ideologies would be the best approach. In The Asians: Their Heritage and Their Destiny, Paul Thomas Welty describes the requirements of the two parties in a ruler-subject relationship: “The inferior owes loving obedience and loyalty to his superior, and the superior owes loving responsibility to the inferior.” While we do need to instill discipline and enforce standards, we must still be empathetic and think about how our decisions affect our subordinates. Failing to do this will only breed resentment and cause a lack of motivation to accomplish the mission. There are certain circumstances where we need to be strict in dealing out a punishment, as legalism calls for; however, in the majority of cases it is much better to lead with the Confucian philosophy of mutual respect.
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I also believe that various influential battle strategies from The Art of War is still seen in today’s military warfare. Sun Tzu created this piece of writing to describe war and some military strategies, not realizing that it would create the foundation for countless future battle tactics and decisions. There were many ideas mentioned, as one aspect that you mentioned from the Art of War was the importance of preparation. I agree with you when you say that practicing a lot of drills will make sure that you are well prepared during a real emergency and do not allow the pressure to distract you. However, I feel as if you are only looking at preparation on a defensive perspective. I believe that Sun Tzu wanted his readers to use preparation as an offensive tactic too. In his writing, he said “The skillful strategist defeats the enemy without doing battle, captures the city without laying siege.” Having a plan is many times half the battle. You can defeat the enemy by being smarter and having a plan such as holding their leader hostage. That’s how you could win a battle without firing a single bullet.
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Hazel, it is fascinating to see how history has repeated itself. That is why it is crucial to think critically about the past in order not to make the same mistakes. Further, you talked about Legalism and the importance of clear-cut rules, as opposed to reliance on morality. While it would be nice to have clear-cut rules, leaders often find themselves in situations not covered by the rules. For example, when two actions seem to be right and legal, it takes a good leader to deal with such moral dilemma. Clear-cut rules do not account for all situations, and morality is what helps leaders deal with the potential edge cases.
Lastly, you talked about the importance of a leader to know himself, his troops, and his enemies. That is a valuable lesson from Sun Tzu because if one lives by these principles, he or she will never be caught by surprised. Having the right intelligence on the enemy and good self-awareness is almost like viewing a test before taking it, you know what to expect and what your course of actions should be.
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One main point that I agree with is that history certainly repeats itself. I believe that it tends to do so because we forget history as time goes on. Whether it is forgetting about the Civil War, World War II and the Holocaust, we seem to believe that these are one-time events that won’t repeat themselves. This is a scary reality that we need to face so we don’t relive some of these past events.
The second point is on communication. I absolutely that one thing that has not changed since the middle ages to now is that communication is such a vital piece of working cohesively as a unit. It is something we must be able to do as leaders. Going back to history repeating itself, there are many instances where we can see good and bad examples of communication and see what strategies have and have not been effective. Looking back at these examples is one of the main reasons that we take this class.
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I also believe that the Art of War is one of the most influential pieces of literature, regarding war and strategy, still around today. There have been numerous times where I have been talking to an officer and they bring up the Art of War. This document is packed with wisdom that was acquired over generations of war fighting back in the ancient days of the Chinese dynasties. They were very successful and were able to stay on top and be a prosperous nation. The fact that their tactical knowledge is still relevant and commonly referred to today is amazing. Our military has modeled itself in a way that follows many of the concepts in the Art of War and it has resulted in a very regimented and successful organization. As future officers, it would be wise for us to continue to learn from past cultures, such as China, and improve upon the mistakes they made so that we can be even more successful.
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