This is the second slide set for The Strongest Rope. In the first slide set, I presented some background on the sources and purposes of the The Strongest Rope. In this slide set, I provide an overview of the seven principles (cords) of the The Strongest Rope. The image on this slide is a painting that depicts King Robert the Bruce of Scotland slaying the English knight Henry de Bohun during the opening moments of the Battle of Bannockburn, Bruce's great victory over the vastly superior English army. Robert the Bruce was a masterful strategist, and was a living example of the principles found in The Strongest Rope. There are decent articles about Bannockburn and Bruce on the Wikipedia, but if you really want to learn about this remarkable man, you should read the books by Nigel Tranter (great historical fiction) and G. W. S. Barrow (the definitive history).

As described in the first slide set on The Strongest Rope, there are seven strategic principles that together constitute "The Strongest Rope." Two of the principles are foundational, and correspond more or less to ontology, a branch of philosophy. Two of the principles focus on knowing, awareness, or information, and correspond more or less to epistemology, a second branch of philosophy. And three of the principles focus on strategic action, and correspond more or less to ethics, a third branch of philosophy. In the next seven slides I give a brief overview of each of the seven principles (cords) of The Strongest Rope. This slide set will be followed by a slide set devoted to each principle, covering each principle in much greater detail.

Chapter 25 of the Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 115) ends with the following four-line stanza:

Human beings emulate the earth (di),
The earth emulates the heavens (tian),
The heavens emulate way-making (dao),
And way-making emulates what is spontaneously so (ziran).

This is a concise statement of the daoist worldview, and it is a statement about "how things work." In this passage, "earth" corresponds not only to the land (world), but also to the living things that dwell there. "Heavens" corresponds to seasons, cycles (of the moon, sun, etc), and the grand patterns of the natural world (life, death, etc.). "Way-making" corresponds to the natural processes of growth, change, development, and so on. And "spontaneously so" is the principle by which all of these natural processes operate. I think of ziran as "the fundamental operating principle of the universe," and this fundamental daoist concept is strikingly similar to current ideas found in the cognitive and complexity sciences (e.g., emergence and self-organization).

Chapter 7 of the Laozi Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 166) closes with the following nine-line stanza:

Hence in the words of the sages:
We do things noncoercively (wuwei)
And the common people develop along their own lines,
We cherish equilibrium (jing)
And the common people order themselves,
We are non-interfering in our governance (wushi)
And the common people prosper themselves,
We are objectless in our desires (wuyu)
And the common people are of themselves like unworked wood (pu).

Ames & Hall translate wuwei as "noncoercive action in accord with the de of things." This idea corresponds to less talk and more listening, less busy-ness and more focus, less force and more respect, less control and more trust. De is virtue, potency, or power, so wuwei (and the other wu-forms) are guides to enhancing the well-being and potency of those around us.

Another view on the idea "Less is more" comes from the Sunzi Bingfa (Minford, 2002, p. 169), where the translator briefly discusses the following passage:

A swooping falcon
Breaks the back
Of its prey;
Such is the precision
Of its timing (jie).

The Chinese pictograph for jie (timing) is based on the knots or joints in bamboo, which symbolize those opportunities for effective action that appear in the ongoing stream of experience. A contemporary term for these knots or joints is "touchpoints," which are seen as points in time where a light touch can have a large impact (see, for example, Brazelton, 2000).

Chapter 33 of the Laozi Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 128) reads as follows:

To know others is wisdom;
To know yourself is acuity (ming).
To conquer others is power,
To conquer oneself is strength.
To know contentment is to have wealth.

To act resolutely is to have purpose.
To stay one's ground is to be enduring.
To die and yet not be forgotten is to be long-lived.

A key concept here is a acuity (ming), which is essential to situational awareness and effective strategic action. In the previous slide (Less Is More) we encountered a complementary concept, equilibrium (jing). When taken together, acuity (ming) and equilibrium (jing) correspond to the key elements of mindfulness. I chose the photo for this slide to represent these two elements: Being able to see the droplets in mid-air is acuity (ming), being able to regain tranquility as the ripples spread is equilibrium (jing). Acuity (ming) and equilibrium (jing) are the essence of a mindful approach to living in this world.

Acuity (ming) also appears at the end of Chapter 52 of the Laozi Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 158):

Making out the small is the real acuity (ming),
Safeguarding the weak is real strength.
Taking into account the way things
reveal themselves,
If you go back again and rely upon your acuity,
You will stay clear of calamities.

You can find the same sentiment expressed in the Sunzi Bingfa (Minford, 2002, p. 22):

To lift autumn fur
Is no
Strength;
To see sun and moon
Is no
Perception;
To hear thunder
Is no
Quickness of hearing.

The Skillful Warrior of old
Won
Easy victories.

Sunzi's Skillful Warrior won easy victories because (pp. 22-3):

His victories
Are
Flawless;
His victory is
Flawless
Because it is
Inevitable;
He vanquishes
An already defeated enemy.

All of this because of acuity (ming): The Skillful Warrior sees the patterns as they are emerging, when the patterns inherent to the situation are just taking root. Mindfulness (ming + jing) allows one to be master of the situation.

Chapter 48 of the Laozi Daodejing reads as follows (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 151):

In studying, there is daily increase,
While in learning of way-making (dao),
there is daily decrease;
One loses and again loses
To the point that one does everything
non coercively (wuwei).
One does things non coercively
And nothing goes undone.

In wanting to rule the world
Be always non-interfering in going about
its business (wushi);
For in being interfering
You make yourself unworthy of ruling the world.

The first two lines of this passage are reminiscent of Wendell's Berry essay, "The Way of Ignorance" (Berry, 2005). In this essay Berry argues, not that ignorance is a good thing, but that ignorance is a fact of life. What Berry argues against is the arrogance that ignores the fundamental nature of our ignorance. This is the same arrogance that Laozi argues against. Both Laozi and Berry argue for a non-interfering form of action, that honors the larger rhythms (patterns) of the living world (see How Things Work). There is ignorance on our part, but there is an eternal "wisdom" in the larger patterns. This is also related to Berry's essay, "Solving for Pattern" (Berry, 2005), where he argues that good solutions are in harmony with these larger patterns, but that bad solutions interfere and disrupt those patterns. Good solutions are based on the wu-forms (such as wuwei), and the wisdom that comes from knowing and seeing how things work.

We have already had a number of encounters with the paradoxical nature of daoist philosophy (see Less Is More and Solve for Pattern). Here is another passage from the Laozi Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, ch. 45, p. 147) that highlights the paradoxical nature of this world:

What is most consummate seems defective,
Yet using it does not wear it out.
What is fullest seems empty,
Yet using it does not use it up.

What is truest seems crooked;
What is most skillful seems bungling;
What is most prosperous seems wanting.
What is most eloquent seems halting.

Staying active beats the cold,
Keeping still beats the heat.
Purity and stillness can bring proper
order to the world.

Paradox is symbolized by the taiji symbol, shown on this slide: Yin (night, female, empty, retreating) and yang (day, male, full, advancing) may be opposites, but they are also joined in an eternal dance (see also Flemons, 1981). Paradox also appears in the Sunzi Bingfa (Minford, 2002) as five dialectical pairs: form (xing) and energy (shi), empty (xu) and full (shi), direct (zheng) and indirect (qi), crooked (yu) and straight (zhi). The paradoxical nature of daoist philosophy gives it tremendous creative potential, especially when dealing with the subtle dynamics of complex situations.

The first six principles are applicable to any situation where action is called for. The seventh principle, Command with Character, is applicable when leadership is part of the situation. The Laozi Daodejing and the Sunzi Bingfa were both written for the political and/or military leaders of ancient China. As with all types of action, the basic principles are in force, especially Less Is More (wuwei). Here is the first stanza from chapter 29 of the Laozi Daodejing (Ames & Hall, 2003, p. 122):

If someone wants to rule the world,
and goes about trying to do so,
I foresee that they simply will not succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel,
And is not something that can be ruled.
Those who would rule it ruin it;
Those who would control it lose it.

But there is also this (ch. 57, p. 165):

Bring proper order to the state by being
straightforward
And deploy the military with strategies that
take the enemy by surprise,
But in ruling the world be non-interfering
in going about your business (wushi).

This passage, along with others in the Laozi Daodejing and the Sunzi Bingfa, suggests that effective strategic action is not a matter of simply being passive, but of being actively wise, especially in matters of perception and observation.

In the seven core slides of this presentation, each corresponding to one of the seven "cords" of The Strongest Rope," I have tried to give you a flavor for the meaning and intent of that principle. The first two principles - How Things Work and Less Is More - contain a sophisticated view of the fundamental processes and patterns of nature, including human nature. This is the ontology of strategic action. The next two principles - Know Yourself and Know the Situation - emphasize the human strategist, for in the end there is no strategy besides the actions of human strategists. This is the epistemology of strategic action. The final three principles - Solve for Pattern, Embrace Paradox, Command with Character - pertain to the effects of strategic action, for all actions must be judged on their impact. This is the ethics of strategic action.

In the next seven presentations I will take each strategic principle, each cord of The Strongest Rope, and elaborate these ideas more completely, drawing upon not only the daoist classics, but also on relevant ideas from the cognitive and complexity sciences.