The Art of War

The Art of War
The beginning of The Art of War, in a "classical" bamboo book from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
Author	Sun Tzu
Genre(s)	military treatise
Publication date	unknown, ca. 6th century BC
ISBN	NA

The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; pinyin: Sūnzǐ Bīngfǎ) is a Chinese military treatise that was written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC, during the Spring and Autumn period. (Some scholars believe it was written during the later Warring States period.^[1]) Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and still one of the basic texts.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

The book was translated into the French language in 1772 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and into English by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905. Leaders as diverse as Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, and General Douglas MacArthur have claimed to have drawn inspiration from the work. The Art of War has also been applied to business and managerial strategies.^[2][3]

The 13 chapters

The Art of War is divided into 13 chapters (or P'ien), and the collection is referred to as being one Ch'üan ("whole" or alternatively "chronicle"). As different translations have used differing titles for each chapter, a selection appears below.

Chapter summary

1. Laying Plans/The Calculations explores the five fundamental factors (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership, and management) and seven elements that define a successful outcome. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points you can calculate a victory, deviation from them will ensure failure. Remember that war is a very grave matter of state.
2. Waging War/The Challenge explains how to understand the economy of war and how success requires making the winning play, which in turn, requires limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
3. Attack by Stratagem/The Plan of Attack defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and the five ingredients that you need to succeed in any war. In order of importance: Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army, lastly Cities.
4. Tactical Dispositions/Positioning explains the importance of defending existing positions until you can advance them and how you must recognize opportunities, not try to create them.
5. Energy/Directing explains the use of creativity and timing in building your momentum.
6. Weak Points & Strong/Illusion and Reality explains how your opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of your enemy in a given area.
7. Maneuvering/Engaging The Force explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon you.
8. Variation in Tactics/The Nine Variations focuses on the need for flexibility in your responses. It explains how to respond to shifting circumstances successfully.
9. The Army on the March/Moving The Force describes the different situations in them.
10. The Attack by Fire/Fiery Attack explains the use of weapons generally and the use of the environment as a weapon specifically. It examines the five targets for attack, the five types of environmental attack, and the appropriate responses to such attack.
11. The Use of Spies/The Use of Intelligence focuses on the importance of developing good information sources, specifically the five types of sources and how to manage them.

Authenticity

Some have raised a question regarding the authenticity of the list of virtues ascribed to the commander in Section I, ss.9. It has been urged that this section was added posthumously to align The Art of War with the five cardinal virtues of the Chinese. This is based on the contention that sincerity stands opposed to the deception in war that the text celebrates.^[4]

Annotations

A portion of The Art of War in Tangut script.

Before the bamboo scroll version was discovered by archaeologists in April 1972, a commonly cited version of The Art of War was the Annotation of Sun Tzu's Strategies by Cao Cao, the founder of the Kingdom of Wei. In the preface, he wrote that previous annotations were not focused on the essential ideas. Other annotations cited in official history books include Shen You (176-204)'s Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, Jia Xu's Copy of Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, Cao Cao and Wang Ling's Sun Tzu's Military Strategy.^[5]

The Book of Sui documented seven books named after Sun Tzu. An annotation by Du Mu also includes Cao Cao's annotation. Li Jing's The Art of War is said to be a revision of Master Sun's strategies. Annotations by Cao Cao, Du Mu and Li Quan were translated into the Tangut language before AD 1040. A book named Ten Schools of The Art of War Annotations was published before AD 1161.

After the movable type printer was invented, The Art of War (with Cao Cao's annotations) was published as a military text book, known as Seven Military Classics with six other strategy books.

As a required reading military textbook since the Song Dynasty, Seven Military Classics (武經七書，武经七书) has many annotations. More than 30 differently annotated versions of this book exist today.

The two most common traditional Chinese versions of the Art of War, (the Complete Specialist Focus and Military Bible versions) were the sources for early translation into English and other languages. It was not until the 1970s that these works were compiled with more recent archeological discoveries into a single more complete version in Taipei, Taiwan. The resulting work is known as the Complete Version of Sun Tzu's Art of War. The National Defense Research Investigation Office has been the source for more recent and complete translations.

Quotations

Verses from the book occur in modern daily Chinese idioms and phrases, such as the last verse of Chapter 3:

故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

This has been more tersely interpreted and condensed into the modern proverb:

知己知彼，百戰不殆。

If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.

This translation of this sentence 'If you know both sides, you will win a hundred times in one hundred battles. (知己知彼，百戰百勝)' is incorrect. The word '殆' in Chinese means 'danger'. '百' in this sentence is better interpreted as 'numerous' rather than 'hundred'.

However, Master Sun knew the dangers of overconfidence in strategy. '知己知彼，百戰百勝' ('If you know both sides, you will win a hundred times in one hundred battles') is untrue since in the beginning paragraph of chapter four, Master Sun wrote 'Hence, we can well predict who would win but there is no strategy guaranteeing winning (故曰: 勝可知，而不可為。)'.

Similar verses have also been borrowed—in a manner construing skillfulness as victory "without fighting" -- for example:

是故百戰百勝，非善之善者也；不戰而屈人之兵，善之善者也。

Therefore one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.

Another quotation (chapter 1, paragraph 18) states:

兵不厭詐。

All warfare is based on deception.

or, alternatively:

Never will those who wage war tire of deception.

Military applications

In many East Asian countries, The Art of War was part of the syllabus for potential candidates of military service examinations. Various translations are available.

During the Sengoku era in Japan, a daimyo named Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) is said to have become almost invincible in all battles without relying on guns, because he studied The Art of War.^[6] The book even gave him the inspiration for his famous battle standard "Fūrinkazan" (Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain), meaning fast as the wind, silent as a forest, ferocious as fire and immovable as a mountain.^[7]

The translator Samuel B. Griffith offers a chapter on "Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung" where The Art of War is cited as influencing Mao's On Guerilla Warfare, On the Protracted War, and Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War and includes Mao's quote: "We must not belittle the saying in the book of Sun Wu Tzu, the great military expert of ancient China, 'Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a thousand battles without disaster.'"^[8]

During the Vietnam War, some Vietcong officers studied The Art of War, and reportedly could recite entire passages from memory.

General Vo Nguyen Giap successfully implemented tactics described in The Art of War during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ending major French involvement in Indochina and leading to the accords which partitioned Vietnam into North and South. General Giap, later the military mastermind behind victories over American forces in Vietnam, was an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu’s ideas. America's defeat there, more than any other event, brought Sun Tzu to the attention of leaders of American military theory.^[9][10]

The Department of the Army in the United States, through its Command and General Staff College, has directed all units to maintain libraries within their respective headquarters for the continuing education of personnel in the art of war. The Art of War is mentioned as an example of works to be maintained at each individual unit, and staff duty officers are obliged to prepare short papers for presentation to other officers on their readings.^[11]

The Art of War is listed on the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program (formerly known as the Commandant's Reading List). It is recommended reading for all United States Military Intelligence personnel and is required reading for all CIA officers.^[12]

Application outside the military

The Art of War has been applied to many fields well outside of the military. Much of the text is about how to fight wars without actually having to do battle: it gives tips on how to outsmart one's opponent so that physical battle is not necessary. As such, it has found application as a training guide for many competitive endeavors that do not involve actual combat.

There are business books applying its lessons to "office politics" and corporate strategy.^[13][14][15] Many Japanese companies make the book required reading for their key executives.^[16] The book is also popular among Western business management, who have turned to it for inspiration and advice on how to succeed in competitive business situations.

The Art of War has been the subject of various law books^[17][18] and legal articles on the trial process, including negotiation tactics^[19][20] and trial strategy.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26]}

The Art of War has been applied to education (for teachers and educators)^[27]

Depiction in media

Film

• The Art of War is referenced extensively in the Oliver Stone movie, Wall Street (1987).
• The Art of War is a 2000 film starring Wesley Snipes, which uses the text as rough motivation for the plot. It was followed by two straight-to-DVD sequels.

Games

• Brøderbund Software published two games based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War; The Ancient Art of War (1984) and The Ancient Art of War at Sea (1987). The simulation games, with strategy, geography and adventure, were released on computers including Apple II (First title only), Macintosh, and DOS.
• In 1992, MicroProse developed the computer game, The Ancient Art of War in the Skies, for PC/MS-DOS computers as a sequel to The Ancient Art of War and The Ancient Art of War at Sea.

Music

• The rap band, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, named their 1997 double disc album The Art of War.
• Swedish metal band, Sabaton, named their fifth album The Art of War (2008) after the book, and the album feature quotes from the book as introductions to several tracks.

Television

• In 1996, a 13-episode TV series based on Sun Tzu's life story, titled Sun Wu (孫子兵法 - 孫武兵聖傳奇), was produced, starring Sun Yanjun as Sun Tzu.^[28]
• In the HBO television series The Sopranos, mafia boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) begins reading The Art of War upon the recommendation of his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). In episode 3x34, "He is Risen" (2001), Tony quotes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War to describe his approach with Ralph Cifaretto: "if the enemy is of choleric temper, irritate him."
• In 2008, producer Zhang Jizhong adapted Sun Tzu's life story into a 40-episode historical drama TV series titled Bing Sheng (兵聖; aka The Ultimate Master of War: Sun Tzu), starring Zhu Yawen as Sun Tzu.^[29]
• The History Channel aired a documentary in 2009 that discussed Sun Tzu's principles pertaining to the Vietnam War, Operation Overlord, and the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as Sun Tzu's leading the Kingdom of Wu army against the Kingdom of Chu.

Theater

• The Art of War, by Stephen Jeffreys, is a dramatic interpretation incorporating recitations from the text with the telling of two stories: one of a US commander in the Iraq War and the other of a group of Australian company executives. The play was commissioned by the Sydney Theatre Company for their resident "Actor's Company" of twelve actors. It was first performed in May 2007.

Sources and translations

Running Press Miniature Edition of the 1994 Ralph D. Sawyer translation, printed in 2003

• Sun Tzu translated by Dr Han Hiong Tan (2001). Sun Zi's The Art of War. H H Tan Medical P/L. ISBN 0-9580067-0-9. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Lionel Giles (2005). The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition. El Paso Norte Press. ISBN 0-9760726-9-6. 
• Sun Tzu translated by the Denma translation group (2001). The Art of War: the Denma translation. Shambhala Classics. ISBN 1-57062-904-8. 
• Sun-Tzu translated by Roger Ames (1993). The Art of Warfare. Random House. ISBN 0-345-36239-X. ,
• Sun Tzu edited by James Clavell (1983). The Art of War. Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-29216-3. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Ralph D. Sawyer (1994). The Art of War. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-297-8. 
• Sun Tzu translated by John Minford (2002). The Art of War. Viking. ISBN 0-670-03156-9. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Yuan Shibing (1987). Sun Tzu's Art of War: The Modern Chinese Interpretation. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.. ISBN 0-8069-6638-6. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Thomas Cleary (1991). The Art Of War. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 0-87773-537-9. 
• Sun Tzu translated by J.H. Huang (1993). The Art of War: The New Translation. Quill William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-12400-3. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Samuel B. Griffith (1963). The Art of War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-501476-6. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Donald G. Krause (1995). The Art of War For Executives. Berkely Publishing Group (Under Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51902-5. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Stephen F. Kaufman (1996). The Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-3080-0. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Prof. Chow-Hou WEE (2003). Sun Zi Art of War: An Illustrated Translation with Asian Perspectives and Insights. Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd. ISBN 0-13-100137-X. 
• Sun Tzu translated by Paul Brennan (2007). The Art of War for Martial Artists. Odos Books. 2007. ISBN 978-1-60402-416-6
• Sun Tzu translated by Victor H. Mair (2007). The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13382-1
• The Art of Strategy. translated by R. L. Wing. Seattle, Washington: Main Street Books. 1988-05. ISBN 0-385-23784-7. 
• The Art of War plus The Ancient Chinese Revealed. translated by Gary Gagliardi. Hillsborough, Washington: Clearbridge Publishing. 2003. ISBN 1-929194-42-0.  Gagliardi's article about problems of translating the text.
• Sun Tzu translated and annotated by Thomas Huynh and the Editors of Sonshi.com (2008). The Art of War: Spirituality for Conflict. Skylight Paths Publishing. ISBN 978-1-594-73244-7

Note that there is an error in the final sentence of Project Gutenberg's transcription of Lionel Giles' work. In the fragment "Spies are a most important element in war" the word "war" is transposed to "water". Any works that include this error are likely sourced from Project Gutenberg.

See also

Notes

External links

• The Art of War Chinese and English (tr. Lionel Giles) bilingual edition
• The Art of War translated by Lionel Giles (1910) at Project Gutenberg
• Art of War audio book, free public domain solo recording by Moira Fogarty at Internet Archive
• Restored version of Lionel Giles translation: List of eBooks, (Direct link to PDFPDF (216 KB))