Sun Tzu

No other soldier has been read for so long by so many. Twenty-five centuries after his death, Sun Tzu is studied in war colleges, boardrooms and locker rooms alike, all because of one short book. Yet the man himself is almost a shadow: we know his ideas far better than his life.

Tradition places him in the 6th century BC, in the turbulent Spring and Autumn period of ancient China, serving King Helü of the state of Wu¹. The classic biography, written centuries later by the historian Sima Qian¹, credits him with turning Wu into a great military power and with a share in its victory over the larger state of Chu¹. Some historians suspect that The Art of War was polished, or even assembled, a little later², during the Warring States period. The debate over the man does nothing to dim the influence of the book.

That book, the Sunzi Bingfa, runs to just thirteen short chapters³, but almost every line has become a maxim. Its central argument turns the idea of a great general on its head: the finest victory is the one won before a blow is struck.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

The ideas that outlived the man

Strip away the legend and what remains is a compact system of thought. These are the ideas that made The Art of War the most quoted book in the history of strategy.

• Know yourself and the enemy. Know both and a hundred battles hold no fear; know only yourself and you win half the time; know neither and you are lost.
• All warfare is deception. Seem unable to attack when you can, and far away when you are near; mislead the enemy about your position, your numbers and your intentions.
• Win without fighting. The highest skill is to break the enemy's resistance without a battle, by out-thinking and out-positioning him first.
• Speed over attrition. No state has ever profited from a long war. Finish quickly, because a drawn-out campaign drains even the winner.
• The five factors. Moral influence, weather, terrain, command and doctrine⁴ decide who wins, and the general who weighs them honestly before the fight already has the edge.
• Foreknowledge through spies. You cannot get it from spirits or omens, only from people who know the enemy. Good intelligence is the cheapest weapon there is.

Words that survived 2,500 years

These lines, in Lionel Giles's 1910 English translation, are quoted far beyond any battlefield.

The Art of War through history

1. 6th century BCTraditional lifetime of Sun Tzu, serving King Helü of Wu and, by legend, helping defeat the larger state of Chu.
2. 5th to 3rd century BCMany scholars date the surviving text to the Warring States period, suggesting it was compiled and refined over generations rather than written in one sitting.
3. 1772The Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot publishes the first European translation, in French⁵, bringing Sun Tzu to Western readers.
4. 1910Lionel Giles produces the English translation⁴ that would set the standard for a century and give us most of the famous quotations.
5. 20th century onwardAdopted in military academies worldwide and cited by figures from Mao Zedong to modern business and sport, cementing its place as a universal text on winning.

Where Sun Tzu sits among the great commanders

Sun Tzu never left us a battle we can walk step by step, the way we can with Hannibal at Cannae or Julius Caesar at Alesia. His gift was different: a way of thinking that those field commanders lived out without ever reading him. Legend has it that even Napoleon drew on him, and his cool arithmetic of war still frames how strategy is taught. Set him beside the men who fought the battles in our guide to the greatest military commanders in history, and see which of them you most resemble in our Which Commander Are You quiz.