Summary
An introduction to the text of Sunzi’s Art of War, Warrior: The Art of War for Life podcast, and me, Prof. David Boyd, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language & Culture at the United States Air Force Academy, award-winning educator, transformational speaker, and certified life coach. Leadership lessons, motivational mindsets, empowering principles, success strategies, and transformational tactics from Sunzi’s (Sun Tzu) Art of War.
Transcription
Hey, hey, hey! Welcome everyone! Thanks for joining us! I am so glad you are here listening!
Today, I am going to give you a brief introduction to myself, to Sunzi’s Art of War, and to the Warrior podcast.
So let’s get go!
A question I get asked a lot is how did I get into all this stuff? Well …
My interest in Asia began with the smell of incense.
I can still smell the intense fragrance of sandalwood wafting through the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco. I was probably 8 or 9 years old and my Mom and Grandma had brought me to meet my Dad for lunch.
As I watched the incense ascend into the heavens from the censers in front of the Tin How Temple and the small shopfront shrines, my gaze rested upon the Chinese characters on the store front placards – the calligraphy drew me in like mystic runes containing untold treasures of wisdom and knowledge. From that moment on, I was hooked! I wanted to unlock their secrets and mysteries.
As I walked, I was intrigued peering into the acupuncture shop with its skeleton poked full of needles and jars of herbs and natural remedies lining the walls. I still remember the soft, cool feel of the elegant silks between my fingers in the fabric shop, and the exquisiteness of the ornate porcelains in the ceramics shop. I was amazed by the masterful motions that I witnessed through the window of the Kung Fu studio by people of all ages wearing different colored sashes. Then there was the serene peace of groups doing Tai Chi in unison at Portsmouth Square.
Of course, there was the amazing food, which patiently encouraged my awkward bumbling and fumbling of chopsticks with a plethora of flavors that dazzled my young taste buds.
These experiences opened my eyes to a whole new world that has been a part of my life ever since.
As a teenager, I began studying martial arts, Asian philosophy, and Japanese. After high school, and a failed beach volleyball career, I lived in Taiwan for two years as a missionary doing humanitarian work, where I learned Chinese.
Afterward, I began my formal education, earning my Bachelor’s in Asian Studies at Cornell University in 2001. In 2005 I earned two Master’s Degrees at the University of Colorado, Boulder in East Asian Languages & Civilizations and Religious Studies. I completed my Doctoral coursework and passed my Candidacy exams at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2008.
Since then, I have had the great privilege of training cadets at the United States Air Force Academy to become leaders of character and cross-cultural competency. They are now all over the world doing amazing things in countless fields of endeavor.
Through it all, I struggled with depression, toxic perfectionism, self-sabotaging behaviors, co-dependency, people pleasing, limiting beliefs, and devastating self-talk.
One day my wife told me point blank that I had no idea what I wanted in my life or how to get it! She was absolutely right. I was lost. I felt disempowered, disenchanted, and disconnected.
Of all the things she has said to me over our more than 25 years of marriage, of all ways she has inspired and encouraged me, even at times pushed, pulled, and dragged me to become a better version of myself – that was the most profound and impactful thing she has said to me (so far).
In 2012, the trajectory of my life began to change. I became involved in personal development and began to identify issues that were holding me back from the life I wanted. It was not a clean or linear progression, full of ups and downs, successes and setbacks, but slowly things began to improve. As I discovered empowering tools and insights, I became involved in character and leadership development, wanting to share what I had learned.
As I grew into this exciting new venture, I began to see parallels with the ancient Chinese texts I had studied for so long.
Ultimately, this led me back to Sun Tzu’s Art of War. So let’s talk about this text.
Sunzi’s Art of War is traditionally attributed to the ancient general and military strategist Sun Wu. The text was compiled in the 5th century BCE during a time of unprecedented civil war known as the Warring States period of Chinese history.
Over the next thousand years it became the keystone of Chinese military strategy.
The First Emperor used it on an unprecedented scale to unify China in 221 BCE and it was deployed in a constant game of cat and mouse four centuries later by renowned strategist and statesman Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period.
By the 8th century its influence had spread beyond China throughout Asia.
In Japan, samurai and shoguns memorized its passages and applied its principles.
After the Jesuits translated it into French in 1782, Napoleon Bonapart became the first Western military leader to consult it in his campaigns.
It was first translated into English in 1905 by Lionel Giles.
American General Douglas MacArthur employed it against the Nazis during World War II.
Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong likewise attributed his victory over Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces in the Chinese Civil War to it.
Ho Chi Minh and his generals used it effectively against the United States during the Vietnam War.
Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell applied it in the Gulf War.
Current Chinese President Xi Jinping has utilized it extensively in his rollout of the Belt Road Initiative and South China Sea expansions.
It remains required reading for Chinese officers to this day and recommended reading for members of the U.S. military and intelligence community!
Its principles have been effectively extended to the business world, sports, and even dating!
In America, The Art of War has experienced renewed interest thanks to prominent pop culture endorsements by characters such as Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko in the Hollywood blockbuster Wall Street films, American TV mobster Tony Soprano, James Bond “007,” Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and the 2000 action film by the same name starring Wesley Snipes.
Today, the Art of War is an oft’ quoted or misquoted source of hilarious and sometimes thought-provoking memes.
But seriously, why has the Art of War garnered so much attention in the public imagination?
Because it works, it delivers tried and true results, which is why I refer to Sunzi as the “Master of Victory.”
I have spent over a quarter century studying the ancient language, cultural context, and historical background of Sunzi’s Art of War.
I first studied the text in graduate school and was very interested in its relationship to philosophical Daoism.
When I first came to USAFA in 2008, I had the idea of teaching Sunzi’s Art of War as a course on military strategic studies.
In Fall of 2022, that idea finally came to fruition. I offered a capstone course to an elite group of some of the best, brightest, and hardest working cadets in the Air Force. We read the text in its original language.
In preparation for this class, I retranslated the entire text from its original classical Chinese language, returning to and exploring the profound original root meanings and rich imagery that Sunzi employed, along with the intentional multiple layers of meaning he created that has allowed the text to speak poignantly and poetically, powerfully and pragmatically for over two thousand years.
I fell in love with the text all over again. As I re-examined the language of the text and taught it to my students, I discovered the leadership lessons, motivational mindsets, empowering principles, success strategies, and transformational tactics that I will share with you in this podcast.
Some may ask: Why? Why a podcast on Sunzi’s Art of War for Life?
Lou Allen said: “Some battles are fought with swords, some with words, but the hardest battles are those we fight in our own minds.”
Why Warrior? Because I know what it feels like to lose. I know the aching of soul and the frustration of feeling powerless, of not knowing what to do, of feeling constantly embattled and at war inside myself between what I want and what I believe I deserve. I remember the pain of feeling enslaved to my fears and doubts, the indignation and resentment toward the belittling, constricting, and parasitic beliefs that sucked and squeezed the hope, life, and energy out of me.
I remember the joy of deliverance and the peace inside as I have made progress, changed, and gotten things right in my life. I think back on everything that would have helped me when I was younger and everything that is transforming my life right now and I want to share it. If this podcast empowers only one person out there in this wide world, if it makes only life better, and prevents one person from suffering the pain and anguish I have felt, then it is worth it.
So, for all of you who are tired and worn out, to all of you who feel defeated and demotivated, who have settled for less than or given up on your dreams, to all of you who have lost, have lost something of yourselves and feel broken by the battles of life, I say:
Don’t give up! The battle is not over. It’s not too late. You are not too far gone. Your best days are not forever behind you. You are not doomed to fail. As long as you still draw breath there is hope. As long as you wake up this morning, there is an opportunity. Today is a new day. So start over. Give yourself another chance. A fresh start. A clean slate.
There is ALWAYS a Way! There is ALWAYS a Way to get from where we are right now, to where we want to be in any area of our lives! There is ALWAYS a Way forward, a Way upward, a Way onward! There is ALWAYS a Way through, a Way around, or a Way out of any situation or circumstance we may find ourselves in. There is ALWAYS a Way to see things, do things, and respond to things differently in our lives so that we can start getting what we actually want and start winning! Nothing is impossible! It doesn’t matter how we got where we are today or whose fault it is. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been stuck in a rut or felt trapped in our lives. It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve tried and failed and over and over again in the past. As long as there is today, there is ALWAYS a Way.
So Rise up! Pick yourself up off the ground. Dust yourself off and try again. Take a step. Move toward what you really want. Show up as who you really want to be – who you actually, already are deep down inside. It’s time to start fighting for want you want no matter how many times or how much you may have lost in the past. It’s time to start winning. You can do it!
Intro & Outro soundtracks by Sentius
Warrior: The Art of War for Life - A Podcast on Winning 
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