I recently read an ethnography (“From the Enemy’s Point of View: Violence, Empathy, and the Ethnography of Fakes” by Nils Bubant) which supposes that the practice of empathy, or perspective-taking, regarded as a universal virtue, may be put to unsavory ends. In this particular case the author argues that empathy for one's enemy was necessary to convincingly draft forged documents intended to incite violence - the documents were written from the perspective of the opponent.
This immediately brought to mind that famous quote, 'Know your enemy'. Of course, knowing your enemy and empathizing with him are two separate issues. That said, I'm sure there is translation baggage associated with the use of 'know' in this quote and I'm hoping someone could clear this up for me. In other words, what is the actual word used here in the author's native language, and what are the cultural contexts that inform it? What was Suz Tzu really saying here, and what did he mean when he said it?
Not having read him in the original, and not knowing Chinese, the full quote as I know it is as follows. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
This indicates to me that the knowledge is supposed to be relative, and based on military characteristics (organisation, order of battle, capabilities, level of training, doctrine and standard tactics) than more ethereal characteristics such as morale, and motivation. (Not that they should be ignored, but. Only in the context of the upcoming fight)