Sun Zi Art of War
Sun Zi Bing Fa, also known as Sun Tzu Art of War, was
written by the famous strategist Sun Wu, a native of today's Zhongmin County in
East China's Shandong
Province, during the late Spring
and Autumn Period (770-476BC).
Sun Zi Art of War is the world's earliest military book extant in
China and militarists all over the world have paid much attention to the book
(which has been translated into several languages) from its very beginning. At
the beginning of the Tang
Dynasty (618-907), it was introduced into Japan. After the Song Dynasty
(960-1279), it was listed as the first book of the Seven Military Classics. The
book was introduced into Europe and America in modern times. It is said that
after Napoleon was defeated in war, he regretted that he had not earlier read
this book.
In April 1972, bamboo slips versions of Sun Zi Bing Fa and Sun
Bin Bing Fa were discovered in the No.1 Tomb of the Han
Dynasty (206BC-220AD) in the Yinyue Mountain in Linyi of East China's
Shandong Province.
The book features very terse language and philosophic contents, as can bee
seen from below.
At the very beginning of the book, it makes clear that "the art of war is of
vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either
to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected."
Therefore, says the book, the commanders of a war should carefully compare the
conditions of the two parties, and "make calculations before the war to win it."
The book suggests that generals should spare no money in using spies to fully
learn the states of the enemy and stresses that preparedness is essential for
war.
Sun Zi advocates maximizing the victory with minimum
cost, via his famous all-round victory theory of "subduing the enemy troops
without any fighting." The essence of the theory is to attain one's purposes
through a series of unmilitary measures like tactics and diplomacy, based of
course on military strength. The all-round victory thought constituted an
important part in traditional Chinese strategic culture, and became the ideal
goal for later militarists to diligently pursue, up to this very day.
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