Sun Bin Bing Fa (Sun Bin's Art of War) was a famous book on military tactics in
ancient China, another masterpiece of the Sun Zi School after Sun Zi Bing Fa
(Sunzi's Art of War). This book, called Qi Sun Zi (Sunzi of Qi) in
ancient times, was written by Sun Bin, who was said to be the posterity
of Sun Wu. Among the military commanders in Warring States Period (475-221BC),
Sun Bin was famous for his tacts. He and Wu Qi are renowned militarists
of that time.
The earliest record of the military tactics of Sun Bin
was found in Shi Ji (The Records of the Great Historian). Based on the
research, it was said that this book had been lost approximately before the Tang
Dynasty (618-907).
In February 1972, the book in
bamboo slips was discovered in the No.1 Tomb of the Han Dynasty
(206BC-220AD) in the Yinque Mountain in Linyi, Shandong
Province, which means that the long-lost Sun Bin Bing Fa was
available again. After the careful rearrangement, the bamboo slips version of
the book was divided into two sections. The first section included 15 articles
from Qi Sun Zi, while the second section could not be determined as part
of Qi Sun Zi yet. The bamboo slips version is not a complete
one.