This year, for the first time, I’m teaching “Daniel Drezner:
ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0465003044&linkId=2c08990d9c9d2e7271fd1c8b9e3e3dec”>The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China.” These are seven texts, composed between 500 B.C. and A.D. 700, that were kept secret for centuries by Chinese leaders because they were thought to provide the keys to success in warfare. Some of these classics are better known than others. The most famous one is Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” More recently, Xi Jinping’s rhetoric has referred to “The Methods of the Sima,” elevating that classic.
But as I read the oldest of these texts, T’ai Kung’s “Six Secret Teachings,” I came across the description of the “seven harms” that any good king should recognize and avoid if one is to be a good ruler.
[How Donald Trump would worsen America’s trade deficit]
And what are the seven harms? I’ll just quote directly from Ralph Sawyer’s translation of the text:
First, men without knowledge or strategic planning ability are generously rewarded and honored with rank. …
Second, they have reputation but lack substance. …
Third, they make their appearance simple, wear ugly clothes, speak about actionless action in order to seek fame, and talk about non-desire in order to gain profit. …
Fourth, they wear strange caps and belts, and their clothes are overflowing. They listen widely to the disputations of others and speak speciously about unrealistic ideas, displaying them as a sort of personal adornment. …
Fifth, with slander, obsequiousness, and pandering, they seek office and rank. …
Sixth, they have buildings elaborately carved and inlaid. …
Seventh, they create magical formulas and weird techniques, practice sorcery and witchcraft, advance unorthodox ways, and circulate inauspicious sayings, confusing and befuddling the good people.
Now I will grant that many politicians have committed at lease some of these seven harms. Trump, however, is unique in meeting all seven criteria. I suppose the one he’s closest to not fully satisfying is the third one, but a quick search about Trump’s fashion sense confirms that his clothes are in fact ugly, according to the Daily Beast: “[Trump] is the complete embodiment of the stereotype of the rich person who dresses terribly because they are more concerned with wearing something expensive than something stylish.”
