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An ancient Chinese treatise on strategy, attributed to the general Sun Tzu, who is said to have served the king of Wu around the fifth century BC. In thirteen short chapters it covers planning, the cost of war, attack by stratagem, terrain, manoeuvre, the use of fire and the use of spies. Its sayings are famous: 'All warfare is based on deception'; 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles'; and, above all, that the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Context and significance
Today it is read far from the battlefield, in business, sport and politics, because its lessons on preparation, flexibility and choosing one's battles fit any contest. This is Lionel Giles's classic 1910 translation, with notes drawing on the old Chinese commentators. Its European counterpart in hard-headed advice is Machiavelli's The Prince.
About the author
Sun Tzu, Master Sun, is traditionally said to have been a general in the service of the king of Wu in the sixth century BC. According to a famous story, the king tested him by asking him to drill the palace women as soldiers, and when they laughed at his orders, Sun Tzu executed the king's two favourite concubines who commanded them, and the rest obeyed.
Historians are not sure he existed, and the book bearing his name may have been put together later, but The Art of War is the most famous work on strategy ever written. Its ideas on deception, preparation and winning without fighting are studied in business and politics as well as in war.