I’m continuing my reading of classical Chinese military
theory beyond Sun-Tzu. I have always been fascinated by the details included in
Moroni 9, and now I read something that seems to represent the military leaders
that Mormon condemned for starving widows.
In Moroni 9:16 it reads:
And again, my son, there are many widows and their daughters who remain in Sherrizah; and that part of the provisions which the Lamanites did not carry away, behold, the army of Zenephi has carried away, and left them to wander whithersoever they can for food; and many old women do faint by the way and die.
All of Moroni 9 in fact reveals a great deal about Mormon’s
priorities and feelings. He cared deeply about his people, and the only details
of battle he gave were those which described the loss of righteous men, the
horrible treatment of prisoners by forces on both sides, and the suffering of
widows. While he was a commander capable of earning the respect of his people
and was given leadership at a young age, his discussion topics show that he
cared more about the welfare of his people. Given the horrors he witnessed and
constant fighting it is amazing he held to a belief and hope in Christ. While
strategizing is good, it is better that we remember the struggle that Mormon
and Moroni truly cared about, was the salvation of their brethren.
His focus on spiritually righteous soldiers in general and
the horrible treatment of widows recalls a key passage from Lord Shang. He is
rather controversial and I would say brutal figure from Chinese history. He
served as minister for the state of Qin which went on to unify China in its
Warring States Period. Some of his key policies included heavily punishing
light infractions without exception, increasing the farming output of the
state, making military accomplishment the only means of attaining merit and
reward, and increasing the organization and power of the central state by
pruning the power of hereditary families.
He is not without critics even within Chinese history.
Xunzi, a Confucian philosopher often called the Aristotle of ancient China said
in many different ways that armies driven by fear and motivated by rewards for
the number of enemy killed against the soldiers that serve a benevolent ruler
are like those that try to break rocks by throwing eggs at them, or stir
boiling water with their finger.[1]
Armies like that he claimed are no better than hired day laborers or brigands.[2]
Guanzi, a minister from hundreds of years earlier had much more concern for the
welfare of the average farmer, and all of his advice to rulers and authoritarians
was often advanced in order to defend the security of the people.[3]
Lord Shang interacts with Mormon by advising that the army
be split into three. He says the first army should be stout and fit young men
that do the bulk of the fighting. The second group should be capable women who perform
vital logistic functions such as transporting what can be transported out of
reach of the enemy, and defending city walls. The latter point is incredibly similar
to typical combat functions I found in women historical in another
post. The third group was the old and feeble. These individuals should
rather fodder for animals and plants that have medicinal or nutritional value.
So far this sounds like fairly solid and useful advice, but then he describes
why the groups should be separated and it directly relates to the lament in Moroni
9:16:
If the able bodied men mingle with the army of the able bodied women, they will attach great value to the safety of the women and wicked people will have opportunities for intrigue, with the result that the state will perish. Taking pleasure in women’s company, the men will be afraid of disturbing reports and so not even the brave will fight.[4] If the able bodied men and women intermingle with the army of the old and feeble, then the old will arouse the compassion of the able bodied, and the feeble the pity of the strong. Compassion and pity in the heart cause brave people to be more anxious and fearful people not to fight.[5]
Lord Shang clearly argues that feeling compassion and pity
for the feeble, old, and perhaps starving, is a sign of weakness that will
erode the soldiers’ ability to fight.
Mormon in contrast feared that the Nephite’s failure to repent would
lead to their destruction (Mormon 9:3) and want them instead to conquer the
enemy of all righteousness (Mormon 9:6). If Lord Shang was in Mormon’s position
he would have cautioned the people to avoid tender feelings for the old women
that faint and die, and impose harsh punishments for those who do. Luckily he
wasn’t there, and we have Mormon’s account which lamented that the actions of
Nephites were “without order and without mercy” (Mormon 9:18) because they didn’t help.
Clearly the question of battlefield ethics has challenged
thinkers for generations and people in the Book of Mormon grappled with it as
well. Warfare is expensive, and modern societies had a difficult time supplying
and paying for their army. In Helaman it’s only hinted that the army fed and
enriched itself at the expense of the people, but it is explicitly stated here.
As morally repugnant as it might seem, arguments exist that defend prioritizing
the army’s right to food. They have the arms so in many cases might makes
right, and they could just take it regardless of the moral arguments involved. Fighting
consumes more calories than being fought over. Verse 17 said that anybody who
encountered the Lamanite army of Aaron “fell victim to their awful brutality.”
The army of Zenephi that took the food from the widows might have told the
widows that being a little hungry is better than being captured, dying, or
being forced to eat your relatives. Since the army was the only thing standing
between the defenseless widows and the evil Lamanite army, the army of Zenephi
could easily claim a greater need for the food.
This is an interesting battlefield logic that could be
applied to a variety of situations. For example, American military leaders
justified bombing German armies instead of train tracks that led to
concentration camps because helping the military defeat the Germans would save
the highest number of lives. But that decision consigned many Jews to death in
late 1944 and early 1945. Many people argue that essentially the ends justify
the means. While others in contrast argue that how you win the war matters as
much as winning. And winning through immoral tactics in essence gains you the
whole world while losing your soul. Thus it is incredibly important for us to
see that Mormon contrasts so significantly with Shang. The former doesn’t offer
a single justification for taking food from widows, the latter clearly teaches
that the soldiers should feel pity and be distracted from battle.[6]
Mormon most certainly believed then that the manner in which you fight the war
in just as important as winning the war, if not more important. This has key
applications as a democracy committed to freedom has to wrestle with proper
tactics in fighting terrorism.
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[1] Basic
Writings of Xunzi, Burton Watson trans., Columbia University Press, 1963. Page
57: Against the soldiers of a benevolent man, deceptions are of no use; they
are effective only against a ruler who is rash and arrogant, whose people are
worn out [by harsh Legalistic policies], they are effective only against a
state in which the ruler and his subjects…are torn apart and at odds…Therefore
a tyrant like Chieh may practice deception upon another Chieh, and depending
upon how cleverly he proceeds, may happily achieve a certain success. But for a
Chieh to try to practice deception against a sage like Yao would be like trying
to break a rock by throwing eggs at it, or trying to stir boiling water with
your bare finger. He will be like a man consumed by fire and drowned in water.
And 58-59: Obviously [those warlike states] must
employ their own people [in their armies]. But if their own people favor the
benevolent ruler, look up to him as to a father or mother, and rejoice in him
as in the fragrance of iris or orchid, and on the contrary regard their own
superiors as so many wielders of branding irons and tattoo knives [the
implements of punishment in a legalist state], as their foes and enemies, then
human nature being what it is, even if the people should be as cruel and
violent as the tyrant Chieh or robber Chih, how could they be willing to fight
for the sake of men they hate and do hard to one they love?
[2] Ibid., 61: He who by [battlefield] skill
comes back with the head of an enemy is rewarded with eight ounces of gold
levied from the men who accomplished no such deed, but outside of this there
are no regular battle rewards. If one is faced with an enemy who is weak and
small in numbers, such methods may achieve a certain temporary success, but if
the enemy is numerous and strong, one’s own forces will quickly disintegrate.
They will scatter like birds in flight, and it will only be a matter of days
before the state is overthrown. This method of employing soldiers will doom a
state to destruction; no way leads to greater weakness. It is in fact hardly
different from going to the market place and hiring day laborers to do one’s
fighting.
63-64: Those who attract men to military service and
recruit soldiers, rely upon deception [such as Sunzi and Wuzi], and teach men
to covet military achievements and profit- their soldiers will sometimes win,
sometimes lose, but do neither consistently…As times such men will contract
their sphere of influence, at times they will expand it; at times they will
survive, at times they will go under, like rivals struggling for supremacy.
Military operations of this kind are like the raids of robber bands…
[3] Guanzi: Political, Economic, and
Philosophical Essays from Early China, W. Allyn Rickett trans., Princeton
University Press, 1985. 130: If the riffraff settle down while people of
substance scatter, the land will remain uncultivated. If it remains
uncultivated, the six domestic animals will not be raised. If they are not
raised, the state will be impoverished, and its needs will not be sufficiently
supplied. If the state is impoverished and its needs not sufficiently supplied,
its armed forces will be weak and its knights dispirited. Weak and dispirited,
they will neither be victorious in attack nor firm in defense. If they are
neither victorious in attack nor firm in defense, then indeed the state will
not be safe.
230: If the roads are filled with the corpses of
displaced persons, defenses will certainly not be secure. Now if orders are not
reliably carried out, prohibitions obeyed, battles won, and defenses secure,
danger and destruction will follow.
394: If one attacks a city or lays siege to a town so
its occupants are forced to exchange
their sons for food and crack their bones for cooking, such an attack is merely
to uproot oneself…If one gains control over the masses but does not win their
hearts, it is the same as if one were acting alone.
[4]
Modern analysts make similar arguments in regards to having women fill combat
positions.
[5]The Book of Lord Shang: A Classic of the
Chinese School of Law, J.J.L. Duyvendak trans., (University of Chicago
Press, 1928), 251.
[6]
Indeed, Lord Shang believed that when “the people are made weak and the army is
doubly strengthened,”p. 198.
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