The Wiles Of War: 36 Military Strategies from Ancient China

Excellent presentation of this Chinese classic. Includes origins of strategies as part of Taoist philosophy and the I Ching. The author and publisher are Chinese and this helps give the book some authority. Most of these ideas are also common in Western military works but the Chinese come at them from a different perspective and with different priorities. Someday it would be good to do a close comparison of this book with Frontinus and Polynaeus. I am sure that the author gives a very accurate translation but I like some of the other translations of the 36 Strategies that can be found on the Internet better than some of the ones in this book (e.g.: in the book Strategy 3 is "Murder with a borrowed knife" instead of the much cooler "Kill show more with a borrowed sword"). I actually complied two other versions into a list and taped it onto the inside of the back cover. show less