Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu (/suːn ˈdzuː, suːn ˈsuː/;traditional Chinese: 孫子; simplified Chinese: 孙子; pinyin: Sūnzǐ) was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC). Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, a Classical Chinese text on military strategy from the Warring States period, though the earliest parts of the work probably date to at least a century after his death.[1]
Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure, however, his historical existence is uncertain. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian and other traditional Chinese historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544–496 BC. The name Sun Tzu—by which he is more popularly known—is an honorific which means "Master Sun". His birth name was said to be Sun Wu (traditional Chinese: 孫武; simplified Chinese: 孙武) and he is posthumously known by his courtesy name Changqing (Chinese: 長卿).[2] Traditional accounts state that the general's descendant Sun Bin wrote a treatise on military tactics, also titled The Art of War. Since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as "Sun Tzu" in classical Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical, prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bin's treatise in 1972.
Life
[edit]
The earliest account of Sun Tzu's life is a short biography written around 97 BC by Sima Qian as part of his Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji).[3] Sima Qian states that Sun Tzu was born in Qi near the end of the Spring and Autumn period (776–471 BC), and that his courtesy name was "Wu." The rest of the biography consists of an account of how King Helü of Wu, having heard of Sun Wu's Art of War, summoned him to the palace and asked him to demonstrate his ability to train soldiers by training the king's harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Sun Tzu was said to have divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders, and proceeded to give them orders, which they ignored, instead breaking out into laughter. Over the king's protestations, Sun Tzu then had the two concubines executed, at which the rest of the "soldiers" began to behave at once, and the king appoointed Sun Wu as a general, where he went on to lead the state of Wu to victory against the much larger state of Chu during the Battle of Boju in 506 BC.[3] Later accounts also associate Sun Tzu with Wu Zixu, who was credited with the authorship of the Wuzi, another ancient Chinese military text, who was said to have a have been a refugee from Chu, and introduced Sun Wu to King Helu.[4]
Beginning in the 12th century AD, some Chinese scholars began to doubt the historical existence of Sun Tzu.[5] During the Song dynasty, Ye Shi (1150–1223) noticed that the Zuo Zhuan, which mentions most of the notable figures from the Spring and Autumn period, does not mention Sun Tzu at all: despite the fact that Sima Qian had claimed in the Records of the Grand Historian that Sun Tzu had proved on the battlefield that his theories were effective at the Battle of Boju, the Zuo Zhuan, which was written centuries earlier than the Records of the Grand Historian and provides a much more detailed account of the Battle of Boju, does not mention Sun Tzu at all.[6][7]
The name "Sun Wu" (孫武) does not appear in any text prior to the Records of the Grand Historian,[8] and may have been a made-up descriptive cognomen meaning "the fugitive warrior" – the surname "Sun" can be glossed as the related term "fugitive" (xùn 遜), while "Wu" is the ancient Chinese virtue of "martial, valiant" (wǔ 武), or as a Jianghuai dialectal synonym of 士; shì "knight".[9][10] which corresponds to Sunzi's role as the hero's doppelgänger in the story of Wu Zixu.[11]
Furthermore, the earliest parts of the The Art of War, the work he is traditionally credited with, probably date to at least a century after his death.[1] Anachronisms in The Art of War include terms, technology (such as anachronistic crossbows), philosophical ideas, events, and military techniques that should not have been available to Sun Wu.[12][13] Additionally, there are no records of professional generals during the Spring and Autumn period; these are only extant from the Warring States period, so there is doubt as to Sun Tzu's rank and generalship.[13] This caused much confusion as to when The Art of War was actually written; since the 12th century, most scholars from the Song and Qing Dynasty along with modern Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars follow Ye Shi in assigning the text to the beginning of the Warring States period.[5] This later dating has been bolstered by the discovery of the text on bamboo slips accidentally unearthed by construction workers at Yinque Shan in Shandong in 1972,[14][15][16] which had been sealed between 134 and 118 BC.[17] The content of the earlier text is about one-third of the chapters of the modern The Art of War, and their text matches very closely.[18]
Another text discovered in the same collection was Sun Bin's Military Methods,[16] a previously lost work that had been attributed to one of Sun Wu's descendants by Han dynasty bibliographies, which, due to its close relationship with the Art of War, provides important context on the body of military thought in Chinese late antiquity.[19] In the early 20th century, the Chinese writer and reformer Liang Qichao had theorized that the text of the Art of War was actually written in the 4th century BC by this purported descendant of Sun Tzu.[5] Although this hypothesis is no longer tenable, the Sun Bin text's material overlaps with much of the "Sun Tzu" text, and the two may be "a single, continuously developing intellectual tradition united under the Sun name".[20] Unlike Sun Wu, Sun Bin appears to have been an actual person who was a genuine authority on military matters, and may have been the inspiration for the creation of the historical figure "Sun Tzu" through a form of euhemerism.[11] This discovery also showed that much of the historical confusion about anecdotes attributed to Sun Tzu could have been due to the fact that there were two authors that could have been referred to as "Master Sun."[17][11]
The Art of War
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The Art of War, which is traditionally ascribed to Sun Tzu, is a Classical Chinese text dating from the Warring States period. The work is composed of 13 chapters, each which is devoted to a different set of skills or art related to warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics, that outlines theories of battle, but also advocates diplomacy and the cultivation of relationships with other nations as essential to the health of a state.[21]
Taoist rhetoric is a component incorporated in the Art of War. According to Steven C. Combs in "Sun-zi and the Art of War: The Rhetoric of Parsimony",[22] warfare is "used as a metaphor for rhetoric, and that both are philosophically based arts."[22] Combs writes: "Warfare is analogous to persuasion, as a battle for hearts and minds."[22] Combs compares Taoist and Aristotelian rhetoric, notably for the differences in persuasion. Daoist rhetoric in The Art of War warfare strategies is described as "peaceful and passive, favoring silence over speech".[22] This form of communication is parsimonious. Parsimonious behavior, which is highly emphasized in The Art of War as avoiding confrontation and being spiritual in nature, shapes basic principles in Taoism.[23]
Legacy
[edit]
Sun Tzu's Art of War has influenced many notable figures, and is accepted as a masterpiece on strategy and has been frequently cited and referred to by generals and theorists since it was first published, translated, and distributed internationally.[21]
The Art of War was one of the most widely read military treatises in the subsequent Warring States period, a time of constant war among seven ancient Chinese states—Zhao, Qi, Qin, Chu, Han, Wei, and Yan—who fought to control the vast expanse of fertile territory in Eastern China.[21] For almost 1,500 years, it was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080. The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare[24]
The Art of War appears throughout the bibliographical catalogs of the Chinese dynastic histories, but listings of its divisions and size varied widely.[5] The strategist and warlord Cao Cao in the early 3rd century AD authored the earliest known commentary to the Art of War.[5] Cao's preface makes clear that he edited the text and removed certain passages, but the extent of his changes were unclear historically.[5] In the 12th century, Jian Tianbao compiled a collection of commentaries on The Art of War which included Cao Cao's commentary along with several later ones that are frequently cited, including Meng Shi (502-557), Li Quan (c. 750), Jia Lin (c. late 8th c.), Du You (735-812), Du Mu (803-852), Chen Hao (c. Tang dynasty), Mei Yaochen (1002 - 1060), Wang Xi (c. 1082), He Yanxi (c. late 11th c.), and Zhang Yu (c. Southern Song dynasty).[25] Although most of these later commentaries have little value for philology or historical analysis of the original text, they attest to the continued interest in the text throughout Chinese history.[25]
The Art of War was introduced into Nara Japan in c. AD 760 and the book quickly became popular among Japanese military generals. Through its later influence on the Sengoku period "Great Unifiers" of Japan, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu,[21] it significantly affected the unification of Japan in the early modern era. After the Meiji Restoration, it remained popular among the Imperial Japanese armed forces. Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, who led Japan's forces to victory in the Russo-Japanese War, was an avid reader of Sun Tzu.[26]
The book was translated into French and published in 1772 by the French priest Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot; it was re-published in 1782. A partial translation into English was attempted by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905 under the title The Book of War. The first annotated English translation was completed and published by Lionel Giles in 1910.[27]
In the twentieth century, military and political leaders such as the Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, Japanese daimyō Takeda Shingen, and Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp are cited along with American military generals Douglas MacArthur and Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. as having drawn inspiration from the book.[28] Mao Zedong partially credited his 1949 victory over Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang to The Art of War. The work strongly influenced writings about warfare in Mao's Little Red Book, which further influenced communist insurgencies around the world.[21] Ho Chi Minh translated the work for his Vietnamese officers to study. His general Võ Nguyên Giáp was likewise an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu's ideas.[29][30][31]
In Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare, Mark McNeilly writes that a modern interpretation of Sun and his importance throughout Chinese history is critical in understanding China's push to become a superpower in the twenty-first century. Modern Chinese scholars explicitly rely on historical strategic lessons and The Art of War in developing their theories, seeing a direct relationship between their modern struggles and those of China in Sun Tzu's time. There is a great perceived value in Sun Tzu's teachings and other traditional Chinese writers, which are used regularly in developing the strategies of the Chinese state and its leaders.[21]
Some admirers of Sun Tzu's work claim that it has relevance in competitive endeavors across the modern world beyond military strategy and warfare, including espionage, culture, governance, business, and sports.[32][33][34][35][36]
Sun Tzu has been mentioned in pop culture. In the 1987 film Wall Street, the protagonist Gordon Gekko frequently cites passages from The Art of War as guiding principles for his aggressive trading techniques.[37]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Lewis (1999), p. 604.
- ^ "孙子 – 国学网". guoxue.com (in Chinese). 14 May 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
- ^ a b Mair 2007, pp. 133–135.
- ^ Mair 2007, pp. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f Gawlikowski & Loewe (1993), p. 447.
- ^ Zuo Qiuming, "Duke Ding", Zuo Zhuan (in Chinese and English), vol. XI
- ^ Worthington, Daryl (13 March 2015). "The Art of War". New Historian. Archived from the original on 3 March 2019. 13 March 2015
- ^ Mair (2007), p. 9.
- ^ Liu An (original compiler), Xu Shen (annotator). Huainan Honglie (Annotated), "Survey Obscurities". Main text: 「夫死生同域，不可脅陵，勇武一人，為三軍雄。」; Major et al.'s (2010) translation: "One for whom death and life are the same territory, who cannot be threatened, such a single brave warrior is the hero of the Three Armies."; Siku Quanshu version. vols. 4-7, p. 96 of 160 Archived 15 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine; Annotation: 「武士也；江淮間謂士曰武。」
- ^ Liu An (2010) The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China. Translated and edited by John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Aandrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. p. 215
- ^ a b c Mair (2007), p. 10.
- ^ Yang, Sang. The Art of War. Wordsworth Editions Ltd (1999). pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1-85326-779-6
- ^ a b Szczepanski, Kallie. "Sun Tzu and the Art of War". Asian History. Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016. 4 February 2015
- ^ Morrow, Nicholas (4 February 2015). "Sun Tzu, The Art of War (c. 500–300 B.C.)". Classics of Strategy. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ Yinqueshan Han Bamboo Slips (in Chinese), Shandong Provincial Museum, 24 April 2008, archived from the original on 29 October 2013
- ^ a b Clements, Jonathan (2012), The Art of War: A New Translation, Constable & Robinson Ltd, pp. 77–78, ISBN 978-1-78033-131-7
- ^ a b Gawlikowski & Loewe (1993), p. 449.
- ^ Gawlikowski & Loewe (1993), p. 448.
- ^ Sydney Wen-Jang Chu; Cheng-Yu Lee (16 January 2013). "Just another Masterpiece: the Differences between Sun Tzu's the Art of War and Sun Bin's the Art of War". 健行學報. 33 (1). ISSN 1817-6755.
- ^ Mark Edward Lewis (2005), quoted in Mair (2007), p. 18.
- ^ a b c d e f McNeilly 2001, p. 3-7.
- ^ a b c d Combs, Steven C. (August 2000). "Sun-zi and the Art of War: The Rhetoric of Parsimony". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 86 (3): 276–294. doi:10.1080/00335630009384297. S2CID 145097995.
- ^ Galvany, Albert (October 2011). "Philosophy, biography, and Anecdote: On the Portrait of Sun Wu". Philosophy East and West. 61 (4): 630–646. doi:10.1353/pew.2011.0059. S2CID 171035936.
- ^ Smith (1999), p. 216.
- ^ a b Mair 2007, p. 3.
- ^ Tung 2001, p. 805.
- ^ Giles, Lionel The Art of War by Sun Tzu – Special Edition. Special Edition Books. 2007. p. 62.
- ^ Hlavatý, Jozef; Ližbetin, Ján (2021). "The Use of the Art of War Ideas in the Strategic Decision-making of the Company". Transportation Research Procedia. 14th International scientific conference on sustainable, modern and safe transport. 55: 1273–1280. doi:10.1016/j.trpro.2021.07.110. ISSN 2352-1465. S2CID 238896273.
- ^ "Interview with Dr. William Duiker", Sonshi, archived from the original on 18 January 2024, retrieved 5 February 2011
- ^ McCready, Douglas M. (May–June 2003), "Learning from Sun Tzu", Military Review, archived from the original on 29 June 2012
- ^ Forbes, Andrew & Henley, David (2012), The Illustrated Art of War: Sun Tzu, Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti, ASIN B00B91XX8U
- ^ Scott, Wilson (7 March 2013), "Obama meets privately with Jewish leaders", The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., archived from the original on 24 July 2013, retrieved 22 May 2013
- ^ "Obama to challenge Israelis on peace", United Press International, 8 March 2013, retrieved 22 May 2013
- ^ Garner, Rochelle (16 October 2006), "Oracle's Ellison Uses 'Art of War' in Software Battle With SAP", Bloomberg, archived from the original on 20 October 2015, retrieved 18 May 2013
- ^ Hack, Damon (3 February 2005), "For Patriots' Coach, War Is Decided Before Game", The New York Times, retrieved 18 May 2013
- ^ McNeilly 2001, p. 301.
- ^ "Oliver Stone's Wall Street and the Market for Corporate Control". Economics in Popular Film (course). Mount Holyoke. 21 November 2001. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
Sources
[edit]- Gawlikowski, Krzysztof; Loewe, Michael (1993). "Sun tzu ping fa 孫子兵法". In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. pp. 446–455. ISBN 978-1-55729-043-4.
- Lewis, Mark Edward (1999). "Warring States Political History". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 587–650. ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
- Mair, Victor H. (2007). The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13382-1.
- McNeilly, Mark R. (2001), Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-513340-0.
- Smith, Kidder (1999). "The Military Texts: The Sunzi". In de Bary, Wm. Theodore (ed.). Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600, Volume 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 213–224. ISBN 978-0-231-10938-3.
- Tung, R. L. (2001), "Strategic Management Thought in East Asia", in Warner, Malcolm (ed.), Comparative Management:Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, vol. 3, Routledge.
Further reading
[edit]- Ames, Roger T. (1993). Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare: The First English Translation Incorporating the Recently Discovered Yin-chʻüeh-shan Texts. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-36239-1.
- Goldin, Paul (7 April 2020). "Sunzi". The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Texts and How to Read Them. Princeton University Press. pp. 153–165. ISBN 978-0-691-20079-8. Retrieved 28 May 2025.</ref>
- Graff, David A. (2002). Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300–900. Warfare and History. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415239554.
External links
[edit]
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
- Translations
- Works by Sun Tzu in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Sun Tzu at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Sun Tzu at the Internet Archive
- Works by Sun Tzu at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Art of War Chinese-English bilingual edition, Chinese Text Project
- Sun Tzu and Information Warfare at the Institute for National Strategic Studies of National Defense University
- Sun Tzu's Art of War Resource Original translation, reviews of Art of War versions, interviews with translators
- The Art of War illustrated version Archived 24 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, on Theoriq.com
- The Art of War on Modern World, by Edward Rico M. Tj, on r2plan.com
- 11 The Nine Situations | The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Animated)
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