Sun Tzu (c. 544 BCE - c. 496 BCE) was a Chinese general, military strategist and writer of the late Spring and Autumn period, traditionally identified as the author of The Art of War. [1] The treatise, thirteen short chapters on planning, deception, terrain and the economics of conflict, became the foundation of East Asian strategic thought and, in translation, one of the most widely read books on strategy worldwide. [2]
Life and historicity
The traditional account of Sun Tzu's life comes from the Records of the Grand Historian, compiled by Sima Qian in the second and first centuries BCE. It presents him as Sun Wu, a native of the state of Qi who entered the service of King Helü of Wu and helped that state prevail against its larger rival Chu. [1]
The best-known anecdote describes the king testing him by asking him to drill a company of palace women. When they laughed instead of obeying, Sun Tzu had the two commanders, the king's favourite concubines, executed and drilled the rest to perfect order, illustrating his insistence that discipline rests on clear orders and their enforcement. [3]
Modern scholarship treats these details cautiously. Some historians accept a historical Sun Wu; others argue that the text reflects the warfare of the later Warring States period and was compiled by a school rather than a single author. The discovery in 1972 of bamboo manuscripts at Yinqueshan in Shandong settled one long-running question by confirming that The Art of War and a separate treatise attributed to the later strategist Sun Bin were distinct works. [2]
The Art of War
The treatise is short, aphoristic and organised into thirteen chapters covering estimates and planning, the conduct of war, strategic attack, dispositions, force, weak points and strong, manoeuvre, variation of tactics, marches, terrain, the nine situations, attack by fire, and the use of spies. [2]
Its argument is that war is a matter of vital state importance and must be approached by calculation rather than courage. Prolonged campaigns exhaust a state's resources and should be avoided; deception is fundamental, so that an army appears weak where it is strong; and victory belongs to the commander who understands both his own forces and those of his opponent before the fighting begins. [1]
Sun Tzu also emphasised intelligence, devoting the final chapter to categories of spies, and treated terrain and supply as decisive variables rather than incidental ones. [3]
Transmission and influence
The work was a standard text for Chinese and later Japanese commanders for two millennia and formed part of the canonical Seven Military Classics. It reached Europe through a French translation by the Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot in 1772, and the English version by Lionel Giles in 1910 brought it to a wide Anglophone readership. [2]
Twentieth-century military writers, including practitioners of guerrilla warfare, drew heavily on its emphasis on indirect approaches and on avoiding an enemy's strength. [1]
Legacy
Beyond the military sphere, The Art of War has been applied to business competition, negotiation, law, sport and politics, and remains in print in dozens of languages. [3] Sun Tzu himself is commemorated in China as the founding figure of its strategic tradition, whatever the unresolved questions about his biography. [1]
