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Introduction: Sun Tzu's Basic Concepts Lessons 1-21

Overview

Sun Tzu developed a complete, sophisticated strategic system. However, books such as Sun Tzu’s were designed to preserve knowledge rather than to train novices. Sun Tzu’s work in particular was written in several levels of “code,” which disguise its secrets from the casual reader. The purpose of Warrior Class Training is to teach you Sun Tzu’s strategy as a master might train a student.

In this introduction, our first twenty-one lessons give you an overview of Sun Tzu’s system before we tackle the text itself. Because of its design, the text of The Art of War is difficult for any reader—even one who can read ancient Chinese—to readily understand. English readers today have no grasp of the concepts, metaphors, and analogies that Sun Tzu uses in the text. Many of these concepts do not translate well into English, which is why we provide a little of the Chinese itself in our lessons. By outlining Sun Tzu’s basic principles, this introduction provides a framework for reading the text itself.

How to Train:

Directions: When you are asked a question, you check the box you think is correct and click the [Score and Continue] button. This will score your answer and take you to the next page (slide). You move between non-question slides using the [Next] and [Back] buttons on the bottom of the screen. Your score is shown below those buttons at the bottom of the page. You can use the [UP] button in the left column to return to this page and reset your score to zero.

NOTE: Don't forget to BOOKMARK/SAVE AS FAVORITE your page when leaving lessons so you can get back to where you were before completing a section without erasing your scores.

Don't worry about getting answers wrong initially. We make them tricky so you WILL get them wrong!

Since you are asked questions BEFORE the lesson, you are expected to make mistakes. You are also expected to think about the question and why Sun Tzu answers it a particular way. Read more about our unique Warrior Class methodology here. Our training teaches that making mistakes is GREAT if you learn from them. Better to make mistakes here than in your real life.

In these early lessons, you are asked the same question both at the beginning and at end of each lesson and you are provided the answer in between, so the worst you can do is 50%. At the end of the chapter, if your score isn't high enough to move on to the next chapter (75%), we give you an opportunity to answer the questions again.

People usually have to go through the lessons more than once to get a passing score and the keyword for the next set of lessons. Though there are ways to cheat, those that do find it nearly impossible to pass their final exam, which asks similar questions but is cheat-proof.

To start the Lessons 1 - 21, click here.

Review Lessons

You can go to any of these lesson to review them using the links below. You can ignore the questions if you want using the [Next] and [Back] buttons just to look at the slides (except when retaking the test). You can use the [Up] button to return to this page (except when retaking test).

To retake the Final Test, click here.
 

To access specific lessons, click below;

1: Emotion versus Strategy
2: The Framework of Strategy
3: The Goal of Strategy
4: A Unique Position
5: The Competitive Environment
6: The Changing Times
7: Competitive Success.
8: The Need for a Philosophy
9: Advancing a Position
10: The Source of Knowledge
11: The Source of Opportunity.

12: Acting on Vision
13: Positioning
14: Attacks and Battles
15: Moving through Opposition
16: Economic Warfare
17: The Need for Speed
18: Looking before We Leap
19: Changing Conditions
20: Using Leverage
21: Acquiring Information