Chapter eleven of Sun Tzu's Art of War, "The Nine Situations", emphasizes the importance of strategy based on terrain. This chapter describes nine different types of terrain and the respective strategies for each.
1. Dispersive Ground: A place where you fight within your own territory. Here, you should avoid combat.
2. Facile Ground: A place where you have shallowly penetrated into enemy territory. Here, you should not stand still.
3. Contentious Ground: A place that is advantageous if captured by the ally and advantageous to the enemy if captured by them.
4. Open Ground: A place where both allies and enemies can move freely.
5. Intersecting Highways: A place where the territories of several leaders connect and become a key point of traffic.
6. Serious Ground: A place where you have deeply penetrated into enemy territory and have many enemy cities behind you.
7. Difficult Ground: A place where you cross mountains, forests, and marshes, and the march is difficult.
8. Hemmed-In Ground: A place where the road to enter is narrow, the road to turn back is winding and long, and the enemy can attack the ally's large army with a small number of soldiers.
9. Desperate Ground: A place where you will survive if you charge quickly, but if the charge is delayed, you will be annihilated immediately.
Formulating appropriate strategies according to these terrains is the key to victory.
Chapter eleven of Sun Tzu's Art of War, "The Nine Situations", emphasizes the importance of strategy based on terrain. These terrain-based strategies are applied to modern strategic planning, principles of competition, and understanding of human nature. Therefore, understanding these terrains and strategies is extremely useful in modern business and leadership.
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