ABSTRACT
This chapter provides combat as an inherent aspect of human and animal behavior and therefore inevitable. Men have a desire for food and clothes, but things are insufficient to supply them. Thus they group together in diverse places. Hsun-tzu, a philosopher of the late Warring States period best remembered for his assertion that human nature is inherently evil, deduced that human desire is the root cause of conflict: Men are born with desires. Authority comes from warfare, not from harmony among men. In Sun Pin's interpretation of history, all four originated in the minds of the Sages, who derived them from concrete weapons and inventions rather than from abstract images. Thus, having fashioned the first sword, the Yellow Emperor modeled the concept of formations upon the concrete sword rather than creating swords in concrete imitation of some nebulous image. The Yellow Emperor created swords and imagized military formations upon them.
