Importance of Knowing Yourself and Your Enemy

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Know Yourself
Homer’s Odyssey
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
Gospel of Mark
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

In about 500 BCE, the Chinese military general Sunzi wrote the following in The Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” This statement may be applied not only to the war, but also to any type of a contest. Moreover, it is possible to give supportive arguments and examples in favor of this statement from fiction and even the Bible as the phrase is correct and no one even tries to contradict it.

Know Yourself

One of the main priorities of this statement which proves that it is correct is that if a person knows his/her personal abilities, he/she is able to range whether he/she is able to cope with the particular difficulties or not. People should be aware of what they can do as this is guarantee of their success. When people know how to react to a particular situation, when they know for sure whether they are able to cope with a specific task or not they already know whether their attempt will be in vain or not.

Dealing with people and trying to combat them, it is important to be aware of their abilities as the outcome of the battle also depends on whether one knows the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent. In case of wrong correlation between the powers of n opponent, one risks either suffer looses or be defeated at all. Each person should be aware of personal skills and the skills of an opponent.

As it has already been said, there are a lot of examples when the aware of personal abilities and the ones of an opponent brought a victory to a person. Therefore, referencing to such pieces of world literature as Homer’s Odyssey, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Gospel of Mark it is possible to use the examples from these literature works and prove the statement of Chinese military general Sunzi. This statement was said centuries ago, but it still remains up to date now.

Homer’s Odyssey

Reading this epic poem, it is possible to come across a lot of specific examples when being aware of personal abilities and danger a rival can cause, Odyssey managed to become a winner in the battle. For example, the very idea of the epic poem presupposes that Odyssey does not know the whole power of his enemy as he is unable to return home for 20 years. Having Poseidon as an enemy, Odyssey is constantly driven back by different storms.

Being under the supervision of other Gods, Odyssey manages to cope with most of the problems, however, the battle with Poseidon is not what Odyssey can cope with as he is unaware of the enemy and does not know that Poseidon hates him. This is the best example which proves Sunzi’s statement that “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat”, still Sunzi does not say that such situation may also lead to defeat.

However, there is another example in this poem which shows that the awareness of personal power and awareness of the enemy may lead to victory. The situation with Cyclops is an illustrative one. Being captured by this giant, Odyssey does not know what he has to do in order to escape. Having evaluated the situation and measured personal power, it is obvious that Odyssey may run away only if he defeats an enemy.

Being aware of Cyclops’ weakness, Odyssey y blinds Cyclops with a wooden stake and escapes. This is one of the best examples which illustrate the correctness of Sunzi’s statement. Being aware of personal power his ability to blind Cyclops Odyssey is also sure that this is going to defeat his enemy.

The assuredness of the main character may be considered in the phrase, “Cyclops, if any one of mortal men shall ask thee of the unsightly blinding of thine eye, say that it was Odysseus, that blinded it, the waster of cities, son of Laertes, whose dwelling is in Ithaca” (Homer 81).

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

Oedipus is the best representation of Sunzi’s writing that “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” The story presented in this tragedy is devoted to Oedipus, a man who had to kill his father and marry his mother according to a prediction. Trying to omit such a destiny, Oedipus’s parents do all possible to make this prediction come true.

However, having an intention to kill their son something goes wrong and Oedipus remains alive. His father does not know the level of danger and it leads to his death. The unaware of the enemy and his possibilities leads to such result. Speaking about the unaware of personal abilities, the character of Oedipus should be considered. He knows nothing about the prediction as well as he knows nothing about his role in the situation. When he gets to know about it, all the crimes are committed,

Aa-ahh! Now everything’s coming clear!

O light – the last I’ve ever see, I stand

Exposed, all wrong in parents, those with whom

I lived and him I murdered, wrong, all wrong (Sophocles and Mulroy 74)!

Judging this situation from the point of view of the mentioned statement, it is possible to conclude that neither the victim nor a killer knew about their power over each other. Oedipus was unaware of the fact it was his destiny to kill his father, therefore, he knew nothing about himself.

At the same time Oedipus’s father was also unaware of danger from his son and as it appears from the tragedy from his enemy. Even thought Laius learns “of an oracle that he would die at his son’s hands, [he] ordered the baby Oedipus to be exposed on a mountain and drove a spike through his ankles” (Sophocles and Mulroy), destiny is more powerful.

Gospel of Mark

Gospel of Mark is one more source which may be used to support the phrase. The whole writing is devoted to life and death of Christ, his gospel and teaching. There is no need to tell about the day when Christ was crucified and when he was betrayed by this fried, as he believed. This is exactly an example when a person in defeated because he/she does not know who is an enemy and how he/she can affect a person.

It is essential to refer this moment to the phrase as in case Christ was aware of the situation beforehand, this moment could be avoided. Moreover, this situation may be considered from the point of view of Judas who being Christ’s friend betrayed him. It may be considered as the inability to know oneself. Judas was Christ’s friend, however at the moment of danger he understood that he could betray. I believe he could not even expect such an action from himself, still he did.

This is an example of unaware of his own power. This means that Judas did not know himself and as a result he betrayed his friend. Looking at the situation from another angle, it is possible to see that just before the crucifix Christ knew that Judas would betray him, however he remained calm. He new that he would resurrect, therefore, he also knew that Judas’ betrayal would not affect him this is an example how being aware of personal and enemy’s power one remains a winner.

Conclusion

In conclusion it may be stated that to become a winner one should be aware of personal powers as well as about the powers of others. It is essential to be aware of strengths and weaknesses of an enemy as in this case one can consider whether his personal powers can bet an enemy or not.

Such position is a winning one as those who know for sure what they can do and what an enemy can do are able to forecast the future. Strategic planning is a guarantee of success in any affair as trying to predict an outcome one involves all possible measures. Therefore, Sunzi’s statement is a correct one and the examples from the literature support this point of view.

Works Cited

Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Mark. New York: Inter-Varsity Press, 2002. Print.

Homer, Butcher, Samuel and Andrew Lang. The Odyssey. Stilwell: Digireads.com Publishing, 2005. Print.

Sophocles and David D. Mulroy. Oedipus Rex. London: Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2011. Print.

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