Sun Zi Bing Fa - The Art of War

Source: cultural-china.com

Also known as Sun Wu's Military Science or Art of War by Master Sun of Wu, Master Sun's The Art of War (孙子兵法) was written by Su Wu of the State of Qi duringthe later years of the Spring and Autumn Period. The book is China's earliest and most outstanding and complete work on warcraft. Dubbed "the Bible of Military Science", it is also the earliest work on military strategies in the word.

The content of The Art of War is extensive and profound, touching upon a wide range of subjects like war rules, philosophy, strategies, politics, economy, diplomacy, astronomy and geology etc. The book is composed of 13 chapters, with the first one "laying plans" being the principal line, which illustrates the comparison between all conditions of the two parties in the war before dispatching troops, the evaluation of the chances of success or defeat as well as the formulation of the operation plan. The rest chapters mainly deal with war mobilization, how to lay siege to a city with tactics, analyzing the two factors contributing to the outcome of the war as well as how to outstrip the enemy in terms of troops in the planned battlefield that will end up in a success due to outnumbering the enemy troops and how to achieve the success through strategies like separation, aggregation, encirclement and outflanking etc. The use of words in the book is brief and concise, with logically precise illustration and philosophical implications.

The Art of War holds an important position in China's military history, having a far-reaching impact on the strategists, statesmen and thinkers of all dynasties. The noted strategist Cao Cao of the late Eastern Han Dynasty provided critical and explanatory notes for the book. His annotated version of The Art of War - Sun Tzu's Art of War Commentaries is the earliest annotation of the book.

The strategies and philosophical thoughts stated in The Art of War have been widely used in all fields such as military affairs, politics and economy etc.