The Art of War

Sun Tzu was legitimately a brilliant tactician but a bunch of his insight is shit like "if you think you might lose, avoid doing that", "being outnumbered is bad generally", and "consider lying."
In context, this was guide written by someone with experience for the heads of military who had never seen battle but were given command by right of birth-- basically a nepo baby's guide to not messing up the war for us.
Definitely part of my "so you want to rule the world" curriculum. I love it

I read the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles, available for free on the internet. This edition was complemented with notes offering commentary by a wide range of Chinese near-contemporaries who offered their examples, corollaries, etc. The translator added further illumination throughout which added considerably to what I gleaned. What Sun Tzu seems to offer is the codifying of common sense, but that's easy for me to say. He covers all of his bases thoroughly in his opening chapter, outlining categories of consideration and then throwing in a paragraph noting that other considerations may also come into play, every battle is different, etc. Cynically, I feel this makes it easier to take a stand as the ultimate authority: "The general show more that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it will conquer."

Sun Tzu is silent on the topic of avoiding war altogether (notwithstanding his advice to conquer without combat), as if the first diplomacy he prefers to resort to is raising an army. He also hasn't much to say about keeping an army supplied, only its necessity. His advice is entirely practical, unconcerned with any concept resembling honour, eschewing pride as weakness. The only advice that puzzled me was his recommendation to face the sun; I thought you want the sun to shine in your enemy's eyes? Everything points to his having been a man of experience, one who knew cost and consequence. I was more impressed as I read further, finding short precise sentences used to convey enormous meaning, and sometimes in multiple ways. show less

Cheapo Audiobook Edition
Review of the Dreamscape Media LLC audiobook edition (2016) of the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles of the Chinese original ca. 500 BCE

1. Sun Tzŭ said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to capture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. - Opening of Chapter 3 'Attack by Stratagem' of The Art of War

[Rating 3 for this edition only, 5 for Sun Tzu show more otherwise]
I picked up several historical classics via a recent Audible $1 sale and Sun Tzu's The Art of War was one of them. The translation is uncredited but a quick scan of the online editions available at Project Gutenberg or Wikisource shows that they are using the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles which is in the public domain. They do not include any of the Introductions or Commentaries which are available in the online editions. This is only the basic Sun Tzu text translated into English. i.e. it is bare bones.

See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Enchoen27n3200.jpg/330...
Statue of Sun Tzu. Image sourced from Wikisource.

There has often been commentary about utilizing Sun Tzu's principles in other areas of conflict such as corporate or political competition, but a lot of it simply reads as common sense to me. The only surprising moments were a few references to acting against the orders or wishes of the sovereign if such wishes were unwise. That may be common sense, but most rulers would interpret such actions as traitorous.

It was interesting to read Sun Tzu and think about the present day 2022 Ukraine/Russia conflict and consider which of them are making more use of the principles of the ancient strategist.

The narration by Mel Foster was adequate and was delivered in a very relaxed manner without passion. show less

Art of War (兵法）is perhaps the greatest book ever on military strategy. SunZi writes very well. Unfortcunately, most translations take liberties. It's partly because classical Chinese is pithy. I don't think it's because of racism: basically the leading public domain translations filter SunZi through Clausewitz and/or Mahan. I think we can safely ignore the metaphysical aspects, which basically reflect Chinese elemental theory. If you don't worry about trying to figure out his geomancy and read it with skepticism you can definitely get the ideas he is trying to convey. The translations aren't faithless, just that there is a lot one can interpret in -- and they do! Example: 兵法　would be better translated as "Law of Soldiery" or show more "Laws of Arms" which better reflects SunZis broad perspective which considered not merely war, but also training and discipline of troops and of course state-to-state relations and geography. "Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win all your battles" is memorable; but SunZi's writing like all classical Chinese is terse. What he really wrote was: "Know yourself, know your counterpart; 100 battles, 100 victories." The usual translation is a fair interpolation but definitely reads in some things and reads out others: To regard the opponent as a counterpart, not an enemy, is very much part of SunZi's thinking. Despite the fact most translations are inaccurate you MUST read this book if state power & international relations are your object of study. Bad SunZi is better than no SunZi! AMAZING BOOK. READ AND LEARN. show less

“Move not unless you see an advantage, use not your troops unless there is something to be gained, fight not unless the position is critical.”

I read The Art of War by Sun Tzu through an app called Serial Reader, which breaks up longer books, novellas and short stories into manageable pieces that a reader can read in 12 minutes a day. I love to use Serial Reader when I’m waiting for the bus, in the line at the post office, whenever I feel like I have a few moments, but not necessarily long enough to take out a book and find my place.

I also really like Serial Reader because I tend to read things I wouldn’t otherwise read, but so far I’ve really enjoyed all the stories and novels that I’ve read.

I found The Art of War to be show more surprisingly readable, considering it was written around the 5th century, BCE and has been translated countless times since then. It’s much more philosophical than I had anticipated, and in a way, deeply spiritual.

Of course it’s dry. It is. It is an ancient military self-help book, none of it is relevant to me. There are lots of lists about the different kinds of ground an army might fight on, different types of weather, how to traverse it all.

And yet I found it interesting.

I appreciated that this translator (and, I suppose, author) warned against fighting at all. If you want to occupy a town, best to get the enemy to surrender to you painlessly, so that the town is in tact and nothing is destroyed. Sun Tzu really speaks to the desperation of war, how the last thing anyone wants to do in a war is fight, but if you have to fight, this is what you need to do.

I’m glad I read this text. I often found myself reading it and wondering about all the people, leaders, warriors, stay-at-home mothers who’d read it before, who were reading it with me. What did they learn from it? How did they feel reading it? Was it more relevant to their lives than it was to mine?

That, in and of itself, is a fascinating thing to think about, don’t you think? show less

I have read this several times in a variety of translations. This version is formatted like a poem and is a quick read. Interesting that Sun Tzu echoes many of the issues raised by Thucydides. I remember an Instructor Gunnery during my Regimental Officers Basic Course from the United States artillery beginning every lesson with: "Sun Tzu says...". And, "If a 155 round lands on a tank, the tank is toast". So much in such a short book and it was quite possibly written before Thucydides was born.

“All warfare is based on deception.”

“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 it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”

Born in the fifth century B.C., Sun Wu (Sun Tzu was an honorary title) wrote the quintessential rulebook for warfare, known today as Art of War. While the often quoted lines of Sun Tzu are as lyrical as poetry, it was written 2,500 years ago with the singular purpose of codifying the essential requirements for generals and soldiers to be victorious on the battlefield. Even today, his treatise on war is studied by not just military officers, but business leaders and politicians as a roadmap to show more victory.

While most of us have heard of Art of War and have no doubt read many of the catchy anecdotes that populate Sun Tzu’s writing, I dare say very few people have actually read the work from start to finish. While the version I read was about 300 pages, less than 50 pages make up the actual translated writings of Sun Tzu. That text is preceded by a rather informative historical overview of the life of Sun Wu – of which only a few documented facts are known. More importantly, the introduction does a good job of establishing the climate that Sun Tzu lived in within what we now know as China. Frankly, I found this to be the best and most informative part of the text.

Sun Tzu’s actual text is written as a series of individual statements that appear to have been cobbled together. I’m unsure if this is the result of how the work was translated or if the original text was pieced together from scattered writings, but it gives the writing a disjointed feel. However, I can accept this limitation given that it was written as a technical document more than two millennia ago in a different language. From a content perspective, there are many well-known phrases that ring true today. But while the general philosophies are what we remember, the lion’s share of his text details very specific situations and strategies for warfare of that era.

The remainder of the book – more than half of it in fact – is a detailed breakdown of individual passages from Sun Tzu’s text, expanded upon and placed into the context of more modern battles throughout history. This was the most problematic portion of the book because in a lot of cases it was a very tenuous leap to connect the specific tactics of some of the cited battles to the specific situations Sun Tzu wrote about. Sun Tzu’s text is just ambiguous enough that almost anything can be read into some of the passages. It was more wishful thinking than established doctrine that associated some of the examples to his writing. And while Art of War may include many philosophical musings that are usable today, most of Sun Tzu’s writing about specific military tactics– while educational from a historical perspective – are wildly obsolete in the modern world.

As a fascinating historical document that illustrates the thinking and strategy of an era where little has survived the ravages of time, Art of War is an invaluable resource. But as a current day treatise on the conduct of war and competitive strategy, it is really lacks concrete value. Anecdotes aside, I’m pretty sure that no modern standing army or corporate think-tank is sending its best and brightest into the trenches with nothing but Sun Tzu’s writing even though some believe Art of War is the end-all, be-all of strategic thought. It would be a little like arguing before the Supreme Court with no other legal education outside of reading a lot of John Grisham novels.

I think Art of War is a valuable work, but it has achieved a sort of cult following in certain circles that outstrips its actual contribution to strategy. The authors of this translation have gone overboard in assigning value to his teaching – value that can’t really be substantiated. Is it an important historical document? Absolutely. Is it the cornerstone of all of the strategic thought that exists today? Not hardly. While Sun Tzu was in fact a brilliant strategist and philosopher, Art of War wasn’t even translated into a western language until 1772 (French) and 1905 (English). I’m pretty sure most of these strategies had been discovered and utilized by western armies long before then.

Perhaps the most important thing that is lost in the supplementation of Art of War is Sun Tzu’s primary motivation for writing his treatise. While his text is held up as the guide to war, this translation does hit on a key philosophy – it was peace that Sun Tzu was most interested in. He wanted his countrymen to be able to protect themselves and allow for the citizens to live in peace, not war. All you have to read for proof of that is what I think is the most important sentence he wrote:

“There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.”

Amen to that. show less