In Service to State and MAster: Death According to Sunzi and Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Edward N. Smith

First Composed, May 3, 2007

This essay, composed in 2007, represents the first attempt to analyze the philosophy found in Hagakure. It contains minimal edits, except to clarify meaning and improve organization.

When considering the military libraries of East Asian thought and theory, two works often come to the front of shelves: Sunzi’s Art of War and Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure. Today, audiences from walks of life far removed from the original authors read, analyze, and meditate upon these works to find insights into managing conflict, running businesses, and coaching sports teams. Despite the distance between the works from one another, as well as the far-removed distance and cultures behind reasons for reading them today, the core of both address a very human concern that transcends these limitations: death. To meet this grim end, each approaches it from differing roads lined with cultural influences upon the author, reflected in Sunzi’s concerns of efficacy and managing troops compared to Yamamoto’s evaluations of proper behavior and selfless action.  
 
Sunzi, author of the Art of War, is arguably most responsible for the development of military thought in East Asia. Scholars generally accept that he composed the work during the Warring State Period from 403 to 221 BCE.[1] A widely known work in its day and studied continuously since, The Art of War served as the basis of not only the Chinese models of warfare but also served a similar role throughout Asia where Chinese influence spread. Principally, The Art of Waraddressed military matters at the strategic level; that is, the interests of the commander in whom the king vested the responsibility to end conflict. Concise and direct, Sunzi opened his text with “War is a vital matter of state. It is the field on which life or death is determined and the road that leads to either survival or ruin and must be examined with the greatest care.”[2] Other translations noted a subtle difference in the language concerning the nature of warfare, such as “the Way (Tao) to survival or extinction.”[3]
 
In his writings, Sunzi made clear to readers the nature of war as difficult on body and spirit, taxing on state finances, and wasteful all around. For example, “If there is no gain, do not deploy the troops; if it is not critical, do not send them into battle.”[4] Nowhere did this waste show more apparent than in death and, to preserve the state Sunzi cautioned commanders and rulers alike to avoid unnecessary conflict: “the dead cannot be brought back to life.”[5] This concern possessed far-reaching influences, chiefly among them the reliance of Chinese states upon labor taxes to complete public works projects. It is reasonable to extend this even farther into the realm of a recognition that without people, there is no state as reflected in the idea of the Mandate of Heaven. 
 
Looking more deeply into Sunzi’s considerations for commanders, his target audience, he wrote in detail of the characteristics of military leaders. Of the five qualities of commanders that are fatal, two bore relevance to death. First, “If [the commander] has a reckless disregard for life, he can be killed”[6] otherwise translated as “one committed to dying can be slain.”[7] In this instance, Sunzi warned commanders against overzealousness in their own operations so as to not be defeated. Furthermore, he also implied that, when facing such a commander, he may be defeated by helping him meet his commitments to death. The second quality for commanders to beware, “if [the commander] is determined to live at all costs, he can be captured.”[8] Or “one committed to living can be captured.”[9] In the second, a Daoist like sense of balance may be inferred from the suspicious commanders too committed to preserving life. While death wasted the resources of the state, the prospect of death also acted as a rod commanders wielded over subordinates. “Throw your troops into situations from which there is no way out, and they will choose death over desertion. Once they are ready to die, how could you get less than maximum exertion from your officers and men?”[10] In this case, a clear need for intense loyalty precipitated the placement of soldiers in a hopeless scenario--and here, Sunzi resonated a sound like the language of death as Yamamoto.
 
Where The Art of War received significant note on a regional level, Hagakure spent much of its life before the twentieth century in relative, and purposeful, obscurity as the secrete guidebook of ethics and behavior of Nabeshima samurai--samurai far removed from the influential centers of literature found in Edo and Kyoto. Yamamoto Tsunetomo, author of the Hagakure, approached martial matters and death from a different perspective than Sunzi’s worry about the state’s resources. The Hagakure, composed in 1716,[11] over 100 years after the conclusion of the golden age of the samurai, addressed the growing conundrum of the nature of the samurai in a peaceful world. Here, he focused not on the martial prowess of the commander to inspire and maneuver troops—though historically speaking, samurai often acted as commanders of lower-class troops such as Ashigeru and Yamamoto does include some lines about management—but on the spirit and selflessness of the individual warrior. 
 
Like the cherry blossoms often associated with them, samurai were expected to live brilliant and brief lives. In times of tumult like the nearly two-hundred-year civil war known as the Sengoku Jidai (1467-1615), the samurai trained and practiced their craft of violence and thus understood their role in society as preparing for a glorious death in the service of their feudal lord. Though he could not receive an end like this--indeed, he was denied following his lord in death--Yamamoto longed for these days in his times. For example, the Hagakure established within the first two verses that “The way of the samurai is found in death.”[12] Additionally, Yamamoto advocated that “when there is a choice of either dying or not dying, it is better to die.”[13] Yamamoto encouraged samurai to daily meditate on death.[14] The ultimate goal of death is utilitarian in nature. Like principles of Zen used in samurai education, these words prepared samurai to commit to battle--or whatever the challenge may be--completely and selflessly, without ego. 
 
To truly appreciate the depth of Yamamoto’s philosophy, however, required readers to delve deeper into the function of this selflessness beyond preparing for death for death’s sake and into the realm of death for service’s sake. As Yamamoto noted, “Concerning martial valor, merit lies more in dying for one’s master than in striking down the enemy.”[15] On the surface, this passage highlighted that, for a samurai to be valorous, he must die in the service of his feudal lord. Under that, however, rested the base of Yamamoto’s philosophy that action for the master stood higher than action for one self. This same theme continued throughout Hagakure, and appears nowhere stronger than in his vows:
 
            Never be outdone in the Way of the Samurai.
            To be of good use to the master.
            To be filial to my parents.
            To manifest great compassion, and to act for the sake of man.[16]
 
In the language used, as well as the points made, Yamamoto demonstrated in his personal vows the critical nature of loyalty, service, and selflessness in his philosophy that extended as the basis of his discussion of death. As he noted, “Whatever you do should be done for the sake of your master and parents, the people in general, and for posterity,”[17]and this extended to even the case of death. 
 
Sunzi addressed death from the perspective of the commander. He argued that war was a wasteful adventure and death was one of the many methods the resources of the state were exhausted. Death did have a role in his approach to warfare that, if properly utilized, served to motivate soldiers. Commanders needed to, however, balance the role of death as a motivation, either a desire for or a fear of, to not become a liability to the state. Conversely, Yamamoto Tsunetomo discussed death from the perspective of the individual soldier in service to his immediate feudal superior--not the state overall. Yamamoto strongly advocated that “The Way of a Samurai is found only in death,” but that such a death, as with all things, must be one met through a life of selfless service. It was hoped that, in meditating on death, a samurai could release himself from ego and thus enjoy a more complete and satisfying quality of life.

End Notes

[1] Ralph D. Sawyer (Trans.), Art of War (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994). 27. 

[2] Roger T. Ames (Trans.), Sunzi: The Art of Warfare (New York: Ballantine, 1993), 103.

[3] Sawyer, 167.

[4] Ames, 166.

[5] Ames, 166.

[6] Ames, 136.

[7] Sawyer, 204.

[8] Ames, 136.                                                                                                     

[9] Sawyer, 204.

[10] Ames, 157

[11] William S. Wilson (Trans.) Hagakure (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2002), 9.

[12].Wilson, 17.

[13] Wilson, 45.

[14] Wilson, 164.

[15] Wilson, 55.

[16] Wilson, 177.

[17] Wilson, 62.

Works Cited

​Ames, Roger (Trans.) Sun-Tzu: The Art of Warfare. New York: Ballantine, 1993.
 
Sawyer, Ralph D. (Trans.) Art of War. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.
 
Wilson, William S. (Trans.) Hagakure. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2002.