5 levels of war

There’s generally accepted there’s three levels in war: strategy, operations, and tactics; strategy is a long term plan, tactics a short term and operations a mid-level. I would add to these three levels two new ones: politics and technique. There’s generally accepted there’s a level of hierarchy, strategy on top, tactics on bottom, and operations as a mid-level; strategy and operations in lower levels but with a bigger base, for example, as a pyramid. Sun tzu said, Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. That system of pyramid is sometimes criticized, by me too, but represent a vague idea of the level of these parts; I would put politics, or diplomacy, i prefer the term politics because of the greater scope (how people of different hierarchies, and their rulers, and incidents affect the state of war and peace) on the base of the pyramid, followed by strategy, operations, tactics and finally, on the top, technique, dexterity, ability.

For example, politics would be the base, where all is started and is so low that is sometimes not even important, since in war there are sometimes non cooperative adversaries, but it sometimes defines the state of war, maybe 孙子Sun Tzu talked about it when he said “the excellence is to conquer the enemy without fighting”. Of course using this phrase as a excuse for no need of war is a complete misconception, which would made the most part of art of war useless, Sun Tzu himself said “war is of vital importance to the state”; people more acquainted with war would use politics in a more immediate scope of war, for example bribing an army in the field, or making them surrender of fear of what could happen to them, a strategy very used by the mongols. Followed by the long term strategies, as Sun Tzu said, start even before the start of a war; followed by operational level of organizing the different groups of forces in the fronts; followed by tactics, the plan of attacking directly the troops, flanking them, ambushes, attacks of a weak point, etc. where the real battle is decided; and finally, the overlooked technique; wouldn’t the perfect all other four levels, combined in a favorable position to attack be ruined by a troop that don’t know how to fight with swords and spears or don’t have the aim to take the adversaries in a gun fight,or if they don’t have the coordination to advance in the proper formations?

This pyramid seems to be inverted compared to what generally is represented the levels, but I will explain soon why it is made so wait my next texts.

Chinese language, an easy and fun language to learn

Chinese is the easiest language in the world. There is for example no thing as plural, feminine and masculine, verb tense, and has a simple grammar. The words are composed as a single character, pronounced as a single syllable (sometimes they are doubled to express a more defined meaning and avoid confusion with words that have the same sound). These characters are simply majestic, they are so beautiful that people tattoo it in their body even if sometimes they really don’t know their meaning!

For example mountain is written 山shan, a clear picture of three mountains; mouth is口kou; eye is 目mu an eye, an eye and the middle part is the pupil; 人ren a picture of two legs; 木 a tree and its roots, 林lin a forest; 日ri sun, day, and 月yue a moon, together they mean 明 ming bright, clear; 女nu is a woman, a more stylized person, and 子 a small baby, together they mean good, well 好hao. As you can see, they are beautiful, easy and fun to learn.

It is seemingly difficult for Europeans and Americans because, when you talk about learn another language, you generally say about learning the European languages and English, that are the most influential and rich countries, and most of them make part of the same family of language, the romance languages: languages that have its origins in Latin, with exception of German and English that, because the Roman empire was so influential in its time great part of Latin was introduced to English at least. This makes the impression that these Languages are easier, when they are only more similar to your language.

Of course you have heard about the terrible tones, but, guess what, you already use them. For example, when you say “car.” “car?” “car!”, pay attention; you are already using tones! It is not so difficult as it sounds.

Upward movement

The upward movement, together with the, what I call internal movement, form the two basic movements in the Yi jing(I ching)易经(易經). It is a simple concept: The first line is the number 1, odd, yang, down on hierarchy, where things appear, represents the beginning, past, the interior, the initial events; all yang, as seen in the ten wings, except maybe yang down, you can easily see that in the Yi jing that the lower lines indicates lower parts of the body, etc., because the Yi jing was more a social science and after became more an natural science, see my text about up yin and down yang; and the second line, in relation to the first is the number 2, even, yin, higher in hierarchy, where things have already have risen, represents the end, future, the exterior, the conclusion. And any relation between a lower and a higher line can be described as that, although in the context of the 易经(易經)Yi jing(Iching) the yang lines are the odds (135) and the yin the even (246). And is more than natural that a line in a certain place evolves towards the end, the promotion in hierarchy to a higher place, to the future, to become more evident (exterior), to come to a conclusion, etc. It’s evident in 1乾qian where, in the first line, the dragon is still submerged and too early to act, and then it starts to rise until finally going too far in the sixth line, but can be seen in all hexagrams, for example the first line of 2坤kun where the winter begins to appear. You can see the upward movement is already in use in various places, rhe twelve sovereign gua, the hexagrams representing the phases of the moon, where in the next hexagram all lines move one place higher, the sixth line disappears and a line, if moving to yang(after full 坤kun and going to 乾qian) a yang line appears or a yin if it is coming to yin. You can see this too in the 八卦bagua先天xiantian arrangement, except the fire and water trigrams, and the 四象si xiang(there’s a debate how is represented the four images(the combination of 2 lines) but see my texts and I will explain how they are formed in more detail). As you can see it is not a new idea: you can see that even the modern Richard Wilhelm uses it. You can see this principally in the sovereign gua like 24 fu return, he writes that the yang line returns, appearing on the bottom; in 43 guai break-through, the inferior people (yin) start to disappear(on the top); in 33 遯dun retreat the dark force (yin) is ascending(upward movement), and the yang lines are retreating towards the top.

A critic to the易经(易經)Yi Jing(I ching) division in two trigrams: see the hexagram as a whole

The Yi jing is generally seem as composed as two trigrams八卦bagua, divided in upper and bottom, upper is the fourth, fifth and sixth lines, and bottom the first, second and third lines. Dividing the Yi jing seems to be a good idea, divide and conquer; by making smaller, better understandable parts, you make the understanding of the whole much easier. But in the Yi jing you can’t, because in the Yi jing, and the whole Chinese thinking, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. But how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts? I think I would had a difficult time trying to convince people about this, but I don’t have, because the Yi jing itself shows it to us: in the line readings.

You cannot take a moving yang line in the first place( and is important note that depending on the place they have a different meaning, then the trigrams would have a different meaning if on top or on bottom(and even in the nuclear trigrams), which most scholars don’t take in consideration), you can’t take this first moving line yang and say something about it: in 1 qian The Creative it shows that you shouldn’t act, in 24 fu Return it is supremely auspicious, in 43 guai break-through some authors translate as hurt in the toes, and shows that you shouldn’t proceed, in 34 da zhuang the power of the great it says continuing will bring misfortune; and every reading of this line in the 32 hexagrams are different. This is ramdom? I don’t think so; is because in different contexts the whole is more important than a prognostic based solely on this line(that’s why you frequently see the 卦名gua ming, hexagram name, repeated in the line readings). You can’t say something about a single line without take the whole in consideration, you can’t say two lines have a meaning without look the whole context, and you can’t say something about three lines (a trigram 八卦ba gua) without looking the whole picture.

Why this division in two trigrams is so important? We can divide the Yi jing in a variety of ways, four example in four lines and two lines, or five lines and one; the downside is that we don’t have studies about the combination of 4 and 5 lines, although is completely possible. We can divide in more than 2 parts: 3 parts, for example 2 first lines, one line, the third, and the three last lines, or, going from bottom to top: one line, then three, then two lines; for example here you have the three lines representing the bottom nuclear trigram; you can divide in 4, 5, and finally the 6 parts, that we already more or less have in the line readings. The lines of this combinations don’t need to be touching, suceeding one another, why not create a first, third and fifth lines( the yang lines) representing the yang trigram and yang aspect of the hexagram or the second, fourth and sixth lines( the yin lines) giving the yin trigram of the hexagram.

But the most used division, in upper and bottom trigram, is not an ordinary one, everyone can see this; it perfectly divide the trigrams in two equal parts, but is not the only way of using the trigrams in the I Ching, for example for me thunder is 19 lín aproach, fire 61zhōng fú inner thruth, lake 34 dà zhuàng power of the great, wind 33 dùn retreat, water 62 xiǎo guò preponderance of the small and mountain 20 guān contemplation, and heaven qián and earth kūn, the idea is the percentage of yin and yang in the whole. But even if we take in consideration perfect division and symmetry, we still have the division in three pairs of two lines, the two first, third and fourth, and the two last; its perfect since we already know about the combination of two lines, the four images(四象si xiang); now tell me why the division in the upper and bottom trigrams are more important than this division, or any other of the mentioned before? I could myself make a prognostic seen the hexagram as divided in three groups of two lines, and maybe I will do, but I prefer going in the opposite direction: not dividing more the Yi Jing in smaller parts, but seen each time more the hexagrams as a whole. You can see a line, or group of lines, looking at local relationships, for example the fouth line of the hexagram 16 yu enthusiasm, it can be part of the inferior nuclear trigram meaning stoping, mountain, and at the same time making part of the upper trigram meaning movement, thunder, it may respond to the first line but be in the inapropriated relationship minister-ruler, and so on; no, stop looking the parts of an hexagram as different, more important than others relationships. For example, the second and sixth line don’t seen to have any special relationship, but their relationship is as important as every other, again the Yi jing itself can answer our question, just get any hexagram change the sixth line or any other and read this same second line compared to the second line of the first hexagram, it will change, because there’s a relationship between these two lines, every line is connect to each other, even the less obvious, then just look at the hexagram as a whole and not for local relationships.

The two trigrams is seen sometimes as two opposite ideas, even sometimes battling each other, when in fact their just part of a greater whole. You can see this generally in the translations of the two pure hexagrams and the twelve sovereign gua, because of course it’s easier to see the contrast there. for example Richard Wilhelm, in 43 break-through, he sees the group of five lines pushing upward the last yin line; in 1 qian, he even bother to divide the hexagram in two heaven trigrams, he simply says that is composed as a whole of yang lines; would be a error see the hexagram as two different ideas like something strong encounter something also strong and there’s a conflict, it’s much more elegant see the hexagram as a whole, and we should try this with every hexagram, even if is sometimes difficult.

How to simply succeed in the yin yang阴阳(陰陽) theory: a critic to balance

The simpler way in succeeding in yin yang theory, it’s not being yin as you see in Daoism and internal martial arts, you have only half of the whole; it’s not being yang, strength, the good versus evil, you will need the two parts; it’s not balance, if balance were so important we would not need using yin and yang, because yin in yang are unbalances of the taiji; it’s not simply change, this is the book of changes, simply change: is adaptation. And when you adapt, the more you adapt the better it is. Survival of the fittest. I’m a practical man, I like theories but they should work in practice right? Then let’s see this adaptation applied to the most common usage of yin and yang.

For example cold and heat, the secret is not beeing fully clothed or wear light clothes (beeing yin of yang), nor is balance, with you put an average amount of cloth you will feel cold in a night of winter, when you have to go outdoor to go somewhere or will feel hot in summer in a hot day that you should be in a beach eating ice cream. Nor is simply change, the Yi Jing is the book of changes, When you are warmer with a heater in your house in a blizzard you simply change and go in a bathtube with ice. All this would not make sense, you should adapt to the situation, wear heavy clothes in winter and light in the summer. That’s good but you could adapt more, for example in a winter you could have a mass of hot air and don’t be clothed as in a day of blizzard. That’s good but you can adapt even more, for example when you are outside in a cold day and enter into your hot home you should remove some clothes. That’s better but you could adapt even more, for example if you go a few hours in a sauna you will need wear nearly no clothes. See? The more adaptation, the better

In day and night, The secret is not be always be sleeping(passive), or always be awake(active), or balance, being in a state of half sleep half awake all day, or change, you are driving a car needing all your attention and simply change to sleep, you should sleep in the night and be awake during day. Of course there’s people that works during the night and should sleep during day, or people that go to parties until late hours, these people should adapt. Of course sleeping certain 8 hours and awake in the other hours is good, but you could adapt even more. For example sleep during night during the week but in the weekend stay awake until late hours for a party, and after that sleep during the day. That’s good but you could adapt even more, for example take a nap after launch or when you are tired, or awake during the night to take care of your ill son or when you hear a strange sound coming from outside. The more adaptation, the better.

In rigid and flexible,  柔rou soft and 刚(剛)gang hard, the yielding and the solid lines of the Yi Jing(Iching), you may want something hard as iron to use as weapon, but something soft as a mat to sleep, something with balance of rigidness and softness wouldn’t be of use in neither of these things. Of course something that sometime simply change for example a sword that becomes soft in the middle of a battle wouldn’t be advantageous, we need things that adapt to our need. Since the elements in nature generally don’t adapt so much we need use different things for different uses, as we would use a certain soft, passive person for certain tasks and rigid and active persons for others( or the same person if that person posses the ability to adapt, would be even more useful).

That’s what I say, docile as a mare, furious like a dragon

Of course balance is not always a bad idea, and, if this type of adaptation is appropriated, should be employed; balance and unbalance, yin and yang, two opposing but complementary forces.

Of course you have to be careful to compare the cyclic with the non-cyclic movements.

The success with yin yang and the Yi jing (Iching) is more complex than this but this is the simpler way to obtain success.

Centrality and the Yi jing(I ching)易经(易經), supreme yang and supreme yin places

There’s a theory about the general good luck of the second and fifth lines of the Yi jing, This theory is called centrality 中zhong. By being in the middle of the trigrams, it means not too much of too few, its a good idea for persons that believe in the “balance” theory, but that is not what the 道 dao, the world around us, speaks to me. But wouldn’t be then the third and forth lines the most auspicious? Because they are in the centre of the hexagram卦gua.

I have another theory: The supreme yang and supreme yin places. Of the yang lines, odd, the first, third, and fifth, the fifth is the higher, most powerful and then generally controls the hexagram; of the yin lines, the second, fourth, and sixth, the second is the more humble and lower and generally the more receptive and place of acceptance.

This would explain the misfortune seem in the third line: it is the second line in command and sometimes represents a conflict with the fifth line depending of the context of the hexagram.

The diferences of the three main internal martial arts 内家拳nèi jiā quán

Xíngyìquán形意拳 is more vertical, it is said to serve better to the young, it is the more explosive and attack oriented, more yang of the internal martial arts. Being based on the fight with spears, it is especially useful in long range fighting.

Bāguàzhǎng八卦掌 is more horizontal, with it spins, is said to serve better the man or woman of middle age. It main characteristic is its circular footwork and movements, and is associated in war with the cavalry, it speed, very used to flank the adversaries, and is a technique very known in Baguazhang: walk in circles around the adversary and attack their flanks.

Tàijíquán太极拳(太極拳)(Taichichuan) uses all directions, is three-dimensional, is said to be of more use in the old age. Is associate in war with the walls, because its solid stance and equilibrium and use in defense. Is the more Yin oriented and mother of the internal martial arts.

 

风水Feng shui: turn the 先天xiantian pre-heaven bagua arrangement in south hemisphere

Again, more important than saying that you should turn or not turn is a theory about it, so we can discuss and progress the theory of yin and yang, correct eventual mistakes, see eventual exceptions, etc. My opinion is that you should turn the bagua pre-heaven, 先天xian tian arrangement when in the south hemisphere, because the sun will change its direction when you are in the other part of the world, and the bagua should represent this. The 乾qian that in the north hemisphere is in south,   the side that receive the sun light and light is yang, heat and energy, all yang; this became more obvious at the rate that you get away from the equator line, which is more or less the case of china and most countries. But in south Hemisphere you see the sun in the north, needing to rearrange the arrangement. Not only, turning upside down the pre-heaven arrangement, this will not work; we will need to change the other six trigrams, for example the fire trigram, that represents yin to yang, mourning, right, east, where the sun appears and give his light and energy during morning, and water trigram the yang to yin, after the afternoon the energy will be in the left, west, in north hemisphere with south, qian in the top the sun rises in the left, east, but in the south hemisphere it rises in the right side(the same place east of north hemisphere, but with a different reference) and you should adjust accordingly. Then in the south hemisphere the arrangement would be 坤kun down south, mountain in the southwest, water in the left, west, wind in the northwest, heaven in the north up, marsh, or lake in the north east, fire in the east right, thunder southeast. Of course the arrangement have other uses and should not be modified unless there’s a exception like this one. Please, don’t take my words as truth, I could be wrong, if you’re in south hemisphere or north hemisphere send your results in the comments so we can see if this theory works. I have seen this arrangement while in the south hemisphere and the turned bagua arrangement works perfectly for me.

What western medicine could learn with Chinese medicine

Western medicine and Chinese medicine are seemingly different: the former deals with dead bodies, autopsies, the later with life, there’s no use with a body without qi in Chinese medicine; the western deals with interior, they put tubes, cameras, open you with cuts, Chinese deals with the exterior, see how you look, the tone of your skin, how you smell, the points of your skin that carries 气氣qi(acupuncture points) etc.; western is good in treating deceases, Chinese like to prevent it, they knew about this importance much before the western, and they still better on preventing decease then western counterpart, there’s a Chinese saying that states the good doctor prevent illness, the bad treat it.

This two disciplines are starting to merge, there’s western health care plans that cover accupunture,  meaning they accept that it works, and there’s chinese doctor giving it time more western medicines, specially for fast effects and treating an already deceased body. Would be very beneficial to the world if we could fuse these two disciplines, it would solve one of the main problems of humanity: illness, pain and death; such a fusion would cause a revolution in our society.

There’s still works trying to acomplish this, and I think they are important, but exist a shortcut that maybe they are overlooking, there’s a faster and easier way to accomplish part of it.

The key to understand this is not see superficially as most westerns do, and I would say even Chineses, don’t look yin and yang as up yang and down yin; don’t see the forms of

太极拳太極拳Taijiquan(taichichuan)  as if they are immutable or could only be done in a certain order, don’t see it as a simply martial art or a simply form of exercise; don’t see the elements of the ba gua, the eight trigrams, and even the five elements, that should better translated as the five phases, as simple elements that interact with others; don’t see the art of war as a simply book of warfare, it can be used in business,sports, games, life management, martial arts, etc.; don’t see the YI jing (I ching) as a book of dragons, and, finally, do not see Chinese medicine as simply needles.

Westerns see needles everywhere, where Chinese medicine is much more than simply accupunture points, the qi vessels, its a complex science that see the human as a whole, not only treating decease but preventing it; in fact you could remove completely the accupunture points from chinese medicine and you would sill have an effective mean of dealing with the body and mind.

The most important difference in Chinese medicine is exactly the mind, they see the body and mind as a whole; if were maybe a centurie ago( I don’t know much about history of western medicine) someone would say: there’s a magical discipline in china, that say if we are happy this will affect our health, if we have anger it would affect how we feel, if we are depressed this have an impact in our body; but today western medicine know this and yet they don’t have a effective way of using it in medicine.

correct if I’m wrong as I’m not a western doctor or scientist, but when western medicine do an experiment, they put person in groups of age, male of female, and watch the results, and is basicly this. But today western medicine know how mind affect the body, they can’t see the results of a medicine in a depressed person and a happy person, a person that experienced a traumatic experience and a tranquil one, they know that, and yet they can’t use a method to take these factors in consideration; Chinese medicine could help with this, they have a complex method of separating in categories and seen the effects on our body seen our mood, our voice, our look, every small detail, principally the yin yang theory and the five elements (or phases), what I call of categorization of reallities.

Of course to do such a work that would cause a revolution in our lifestyles requires a man with incredible feeling about western medicine and, not only chinese medicine, because chinese philosophy take the whole as more important them the sum of its parts, you will need a complete understanding of chinese thinking: martial arts, qi gong, yin and yang, five phases, art of war, etc. So I warn the person (or group, as a so difficult task would be difficult by only one man) that they have to get rid of their prejudices, open their minds ( both western to the “mystical” Chinese medicine and the chinese to the “imcomplete” western medicine) and be prepared for a hard work, there’s no magical formulas.

Maybe I myself will do it someday, and maybe it will be needed, but if someone or group think he can do it or at least start the studies to make it easier to develop later I will be thankfull, If you need help contact me.

Chinese bow as greeting in the Olympics and sports

They want to prohibit the hand shaking as a salutation in the London 2012 Olympics, because you pass the hands everywhere and then put in the mouth, eyes, nose, and this transmit germs; it’s a good idea since a simple cold could cost a medal or a title for an athlete. Why not use the Chinese bow as a standard form of salutation for all sports? It’s much more elegant.