Le Traité des Cinq Roues

Par Miyamoto Musashi

Le Livre des cinq anneaux, également connu sous le nom de Traité des cinq rouesest un texte de kenjutsu écrit par Musashi Miyamoto vers 1645. Musashi alors âgé de 60 ans se retire dans une grotte et se livre à un exercice d'introspection et de réflexion sur l'art du sabre japonais. Ce livre est généralement considéré comme un classique de stratégie militaire, à la manière du traité sur L'Art de la guerre par Sun Zi (Sun Tsu). Comme ce dernier, le livre des cinq anneaux de Musashi va au delà d'un simple traité sur l'art du sabre, les développements philosophiques du livre peuvent être appréciés par un auditoire non exclusivement réservé au pratiquant d'arts martiaux. De par ses éléments sur la guerre dans son ensemble, il est aussi un livre de stratégie militaire mais a également dépassé cette audience pour intéresser les hommes d'affaire dans la résolution de conflits. Le style hyōhō niten ichi-ryū à deux sabres emploie cet ouvrage comme manuel de technique et de philosophie.

• Langue: Français
• Éditeur: Booklassic
• Date de sortie: 10 juin 2015
• ISBN: 9789635223381

Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) was a renowned samurai warrior who, from age 13 to 30, fought and won over sixty duels. Between the ages of 30 and 50 he became known as a skilled craftsman and sculptor, as well as a calligrapher and a prolific painter. It was during this time that he formulated the ideas that later became A Book of Five Rings.

Aperçu du livre

978-963-522-338-1

Chapitre 1

Avant-Propos

"J'ai voulu exprimer, pour la première fois, en un livre la Voie de ma tactique nommée Ecole de Niten dont j'ai poursuivi l'élaboration durant de nombreuses années. C'est ainsi qu'au début d'octobre de la vingtième année de l'ère Kan-ei (1643) je me suis rendu au mont Iwato situé dans la province Higo en Kyushu. J'ai salué le Ciel, me suis prosterné devant Avalokitesvara (Kannon) et me suis assis face aux Bouddhas.

Je suis un samouraï né dans la province Harima, et mon nom est Shimmen Musashi-no-kami, Fujira-no-genshin. Je suis âgé de soixante ans. J'ai prêté attention aux Voies de la tactique dès ma jeunesse et j'eus mon premier duel à l'âge de treize ans. Pour ce premier duel, mon adversaire était Arima Kihê, bon sabreur de l'école Shintô que j'ai vaincu. A l'âge de seize ans, je vainquis Akiyama, fort au sabre et originaire de la province de Tajima. A l'âge de vingt et un ans, je me suis rendu à Kyoto et y ai rencontré les meilleurs sabreurs du Japon. Je les ai rencontré plusieurs fois en duel sans jamais être vaincu par aucun d'entre eux. Puis j'ai pérégriné à travers les provinces où j'ai rencontré plusieurs sabreurs de diverses écoles et bien que j'ai été jusqu'à avoir une soixantaine de duels avec eux, je n'ai jamais été vaincu par aucun. Tout cela se passa alors que j'avais de treize à vingt neuf ans environ.

Mais passé le cap des trente ans, je me mis à réfléchir sur ma vie et pensais: Mes victoires ne provenaient pas de la supériorité de ma tactique, mais plutôt de qualités innées chez moi grâce auxquelles je ne me suis pas écarté des meilleurs principes. Peut-être bien aussi que mes adversaires manquaient de tactique. . Ainsi je décidais d'approfondir encore plus la Voie et continuais de me forger matin et soir et enfin, parvenu à la cinquantaine, l'unification avec la Voie de la tactique s'est faite d'elle-même en moi.

Depuis ce moment-là je n'ai plus aucune Voie à rechercher et le temps a passé. J'ai appliqué les principes (avantages) de la tactique à tous les domaines des arts. En conséquence, dans aucun domaine je n'ai de maître. Bien que j'écrive ce livre aujourd'hui, je ne fais aucun emprunt au bouddhisme ni aucun au confucianisme. Je ne me suis inspiré d'aucun récit militaire ancien ni d'aucun ouvrage ancien de tactique. J'ai voulu exprimer la raison d'être et l'esprit réel de notre école en y faisant refléter la Voie du ciel et Avalokitesvara (Kannon). J'ai saisi mon pinceau à quatre heures et demie du matin, à l'aube du dix octobre, et je commençai d'écrire.

Chapitre 2

Terre

En général, la tactique est la loi des samouraïs et ce sont surtout les officiers qui la pratiquent, mais les simples soldats eux-mêmes doivent la connaître. Dans le monde d'aujourd'hui aucun samouraï n'a compris d'une façon certaine la Voie de la tactique.

Tout d'abord, pour donner un sens clair de la Voie, je dirai: dans le bouddhisme la Voie vient en aide aux hommes ; dans le confucianisme la Voie corrige les Lettres ; dans la médecine la Voie guérit les maladies ; certains poètes enseignent la Voie de la poésie ; les artistes, les tireurs à l'arc ou les gens appartenant à n'importe quel autre domaine des arts, exercent chacun leur art comme ils l'entendent et l'aiment selon leur idée tandis que pour la tactique, rares sont ceux qui l'aiment.

En premier lieu, les samouraïs sont familiers avec deux voies : les Lettres et les arts militaires. C'est en cela que consiste leur Voie et même s'ils ne sont pas dignes d'Elle, les samouraïs doivent porter tous leurs efforts sur la tactique militaire selon leur grade.

Lorsque je réfléchis à ce que doit être un samouraï, je suis convaincu qu'il doit être intime avec l'idée de la mort, mais la Voie de la mort n'est pas le seul fait des samouraïs. Les bonzes eux-mêmes, les femmes, les paysans, même les gens appartenant aux plus basses classes de la société doivent savoir décider de leur mort face à leur devoir ou à la honte. En ce sens il n'y a aucune différence entre les samouraïs et eux. Mais les samouraïs, quant à eux, poursuivent en plus la Voie de la tactique. Ils se doivent d'être supérieurs en tout à leurs adversaires. Ou bien ils gagnent dans un combat singulier, ou bien ils sortent vainqueurs d'une bataille. Ils recherchent les honneurs et un haut rang social pour leur seigneur et pour eux-mêmes. Tout ce qu'ils obtiennent est dû aux vertus de la tactique.

D'autres pensent qu'étudier la Voie de la tactique ne peut servir à rien au moment où l'on en a besoin. S'il en est ainsi, il faut alors s'exercer à la tactique de telle façon qu'elle soit utile à n'importe quel moment et il faut l'enseigner de telle manière qu'elle soit applicable à tous les domaines. C'est en cela que consiste la vraie Voie de la tactique.

1. Sur la Voie de la tactique

En Chine et au Japon ceux qui pratiquaient cette Voie étaient traditionnellement appelés experts en la tactique. Quant aux samouraïs ils ne peuvent se passer de l'étudier. De nos jours, des gens vivent en se prétendant tacticiens, mais cela se borne en fait qu'à l'escrime. Des prêtres shintoïstes appartenant aux sanctuaires Kashima et Katori situés dans la province Hitachi (nord-est de Tokyo) ont fondé des écoles d'escrime transmettant l'enseignement des divinités. Ils vont de provinces en provinces pour répandre ces écoles. Le mot de tacticien utilisé aujourd'hui a ce sens. Depuis les temps les plus reculés il est dénombré dix disciplines et sept arts parmi lesquels la tactique figure sous le nom de moyens d'avoir l'avantage. Ainsi la tactique peut-être considérée comme une forme d'art. Mais comme elle fut désignée sous l'appellation « moyens d'avoir l'avantage », la tactique ne peut être bornée seulement à l'escrime. Si on la borne seulement à l'escrime on ne peut même connaître l'escrime, et naturellement, on

Avis sur Le Traité des Cinq Roues

[kurt.rocourt · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

More of a book on thinking than on specific strategies. It's a way to think on different situations with basic thought as a base that can lead to complex strategy.

[bryanj_371419 · Évaluation : 4 sur 5 étoiles]

Excellent book, Excellent Author, and informative enough to keep you on your toes.

[omyasuda · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

1. The Book of Five Rings2. The Book of Family Traditions on th eArt of War, by Yagyu Munenori

[bpinchot40 · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

this is a good book if you want to know more about swordplay and war strategy.

[wprecht_1 · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

If you are this deep into my website, you are no doubt aware that I do medieval sword fighting in the SCA and books like this are simply must reads. It was originally recommended to me by my teacher. He was convinved it was the seminal work on swordfighting and it would help me master the weapon. So, I read it like a good student, I did want to be a good fighter after all...I have to say that after the first reading, I did not believe him. It took me 2 week to plow through this thin book and mostly it left me confused. When I mentioned this to him, he suggested that I reread it about 10 more times, slowly and I will start to ‘get’ it. I thought he was nuts, to that point I had never read a book more than twice and that was a work of fiction that I reread because I didn’t have a book that I hadn’t read and I needed something to do... I also thought that perhaps the fact that he had blown his own weight in dope might have had something to do with his ‘deeper’ understanding. I reality, he simply thought about it more (although being high probably gives you more time to contemplate these things).It took me a while to get around to attempting the text again. In fact, it took untilo after I was knighted and had squires of my own. These students wanted information that they could work on on their own time and books like this are always mentioned as important reads. I felt that I couldn’t ask them to read it without rereading it and maybe preparing myself for their questions. The second read was better, I didn’t have to stop to read the extensive footnotes, I had significantly more experience as a fighter and, probably most importantly, I was mentally a lot more mature.Then I got an audio tape of it, that is the way to go. Driving in the truck and spinning an unabridged 90 minute tape on sword fighting philosophy will surely take your mind off the length of the drive. I have now read the complete text about 5 times and listened to the tape at least a dozen times. I think I get most of it now. The last chapter (The Book of the Void) is deep, deep Zen shit though.OK, we are four paragraphs into the review and you are thinking, “all he has talked about was how hard it is to read...” OK, none of this was meant to discourage you, in fact, quite the opposite. But, I want to start off by making sure you understand what the book is not. This is not a how-to manual on swordfighting, it isn’t that explict. If you want something like that, get a Kendo manual with pictures. It is often billed as a must read strategy guide for businessmen, I am not sure that most of the managers that I have met will benefit from this text. Again, it isn’t a how-to guide, it is a philosphy treatise. It’s focus is swordfighting, but the concepts can certainly be applied to many other ways of life, including business. However, that is going to take a lot of reflection to internalize the philosophy presented here and apply it to something like business. You would be better off with The Prince, I would think.OK, on to the book itself: This is a very thin book. The translator starts off with a 75 or so page section that includes a biography of Musashi, a political and cultural overview of feudal Japan before getting into the text proper. These parts are useful for getting the context of the work, but are not critical.The book itself is divided into, you guessed it, five parts: Ground, Wind, Water, Fire and Void. Each address a different aspect of strategy. Musashi himself says in the work that this isn’t intended as a breezy read, “read a word and reflect upon it.” Of course, he is referring to the Japanese characters which can stand for several English words, but you get the point. Another point that he pounds home over and over again is, “you must practice constantly.”It was intended for his students to learn the ways of the warrior from someone with the unusual perspective of old age and what each thing meant in a greater context. The thing to take away from this text, as an SCA fighter isn’t so much the sword moves he teach (many are at illegal targets), but the concepts of strategy: waiting for an opening, being in harmony, observe everything, etc. These are the things that are generally missing from more practical how-to guides, including those penned by SCA fighters.

[spqr2755 · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

One of the classic books on military thought from East or West and a must read for anyone interested in tactics or strategy. It is very good for understanding the samurai mindset. There is much on personal combat in the book but it is a bit tough to use as a training manual as there is much that is implied but not really stated (to be fair, Musashi says he wrote it that way intentionally). On the other hand, I found Musashi's method of applying the same ideas of strategy and tactics to both personal combat and "large scale military science" to be somewhat of a stretch as these are not always, as he claims, equally applicable (he is essentially equating the methods of the tactical and operational levels of war which is too broad of a claim). When approaching this book it is necessary to remember that Musashi was a duelist and a soldier, not really a general or field commander.

[pghdragonman · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

There are other reviews here for “Book of Five Rings”, but I feel only one of them is close to understanding the essence of this book. “Five Rings” was indeed originally a martial arts treatise, but the Western Reader needs to remember that Martial Arts was a total way of life: all the principles of Martial Arts was applied to everyday life as well. This theme of strategy applying to everything is one Musahi mentions frequently in this work. As you read the book keep this in mind.Mushai writes, “… the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both”. In the Overlook Press edition, there are numerous illustrations of artworks in different mediums created by Musahi himself. Example is the best form of teaching and he clearly shows that there is no division between martial art forms and art forms for pleasure.For the Way of the Warrior, every battle plan must be researched, your enemies’ weaknesses known, your plans constructed accordingly and executed flawlessly. Applying this to the way of the Artisan, something the Western mind sees diametrically opposed to warfare, Musahi’s dictum means the artist must fully understand the medium they are working in, fully understand the idea they are trying to represent and must flawlessly execute their work.The book itself is written like a classical brush painting. Broad strokes suggest the theme and the more we look at the work, the more detail we see in the work. Musahi writes in broad terms, supplying enough detail for us to understand what he is suggesting, but he does not overwhelm us with detail. In many places, the student is admonished to research the subject of his discourses themselves.It is this last aspect that makes this work so enduring and all encompassing. These principles may be applied to any situation, to any profession. It is not a book to be read once and put away. To appreciate “Book of Five Rings” to the fullest, read the book, practice the concepts in everyday life, then, read the book again. Each time you read the book you will find some new insight, just as each time you look at a well-done artwork, you notice new detail. Apply this new insight and read the book yet again. Research this well and practice often.

[squeakychu · Évaluation : 3 sur 5 étoiles]

I found this vintage book (published May, 1982) in my Little Free Library and decided to read it because I've recently become interested in things Japanese. The book was written by a masterless samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, who lived in the late 1500's and early 1600's and practiced what he called heiho. It is said that he never lost a bout with 60 individual swordsmen before reaching the age of thirty. In this book, he wrote the principles of his heiho.I liked this book for learning about this particular form of swordsmanship, but I never took it to be a book about "Japanese success in business" as was advertised at the top of this mass market paperback. It was weird, though, reading a book about mastering the skill to kill another individual. I'm not unhappy that the time of samurai is gone.

[blackbelt2librarian · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

I've studied Taekwon Do for 17 years. A fellow classmate recommended this book to me. A bit difficult to get through at first, but it gives invaluable insight into fighting techniques. It changed the way I thought about sparring & I took this book with me when I competed in the 13th World Taekwon Do Championship in South Korea in '04.

[nrturner_1 · Évaluation : 2 sur 5 étoiles]

Despite the earnest efforts of the translator to place the work in its contemporary context, this translation leaves many questions unanswered. Students of Japanese literature (particularly contemporary strategy literature) may get much more out of it than other readers. Ambiguous statements and overuse of abstract words gave me the feeling that a better translation is possible.The form is letters to a promising young warrior - the writing is didactic and dogmatic assuming a high degree of you-know-what-I-mean knowledge on the part of the reader. As general pedagogy it would be more effective with diagrams to show explicitly what the vague statements mean. Just *what* is a "corner" of the body? Is the head? What about the genitalia?Today, the philosophy of utilitarianism and "enlightened" self-interest are well known leading to a feeling that there is nothing new to modern readers about the principles presented.I won a giveaway of the Victor Harris translation which had a mix of British and American English spellings.

[benjaminhahn · Évaluation : 4 sur 5 étoiles]

It's been a while since I read this and it was worth another go through. There are a couple different groups of readers I can think of that would find this book helpful. First, martial arts enthusiasts, who, for instance like reading ancient war manuals such as Sun Tzu's Art of War or German long sword manuals. Second, samurai movie enthusiasts or Japanophiles, who like to study, in detail, well known samurai film directors who have treat this book as a guide to action sequences. Thirdly, CEO's or Mafia Don's who may be looking for philosophical advantages in planning their next move. I could see Tony Soprano reading this and feeling sophisticated.The book is divided into five elemental parts: water, wind, fire, earth, and void. Most of these have paragraphs focused on a certain strategical concept that should be studied. Here is a typical example:The Mountain-Sea Change"The 'mountain-sea' spirit means that it is bad to repeat the same thing several times when fighting the enemy. There my be no help but to do something twice, but do not try it a third time. If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again. If you attempt a technique which you have previously tried unsuccessfully and fail yet again, then you must change your attacking method. If the enemy thinks of the mountains, attack like the sea; and if he thinks of the sea, attack like the mountains. You must research this deeply."Almost every technique has a clever metaphorical title such as "To Penetrate the Depths" or "Rat's Head, Ox's Neck". It reminds me of my gung-fu years down in Washington and all the names for the strikes and maneuvers we learned. Almost every paragraph ends in an admonishment like "You must study this well." or "You must learn this." This also reminds me of Sifu Lane or Sifu Fogg after every drill or technique plucked from a move set. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fundamentals of martial arts training has not changed much since 1645 when Musashi wrote this manual. Anyway, a fun little book. I will keep an eye out for other translations. Many of the statements in this book hinge on the meaning of single words and Japanese is known for its use of quadruple entendre. Overall, this edition was a nice reintroduction to the classic.

[hermit_9_1 · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

The Book of Five Rings is not really a book; it’s a way of life.

[highlander99_1 · Évaluation : 5 sur 5 étoiles]

The creator of Librarything, Bookmeister Spaulding, must have read this book. The Winning Strategy of Miyamoto Musashi,(1584-1645)tells us among other things that one must cultivate a wide range of interests in the arts; be knowledgable in a variety of occupations; be discreet regarding one's business dealings; nurture the truth to perceive the truth in all matters; not be negligent, even in trifling matters; and, my personal favourite: Do Not Engage in Useless Activity.Read the Master's words. You'll be a changed Thingmalibrarian. Highly recommended - its the Zen and Art of Library Maintenance and pretty much everything else.