Sun Tzu
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Sun Tzu (孫子 also commonly written in pinyin: Sūn Zǐ) was the author of The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. It is a common misconception to think that his writings referred to TACTICS (Or Tacticity). He is also one of the earliest realists in political science.
Some scholars have concluded that the work was actually authored by unknown Chinese philosophers. There are various other doubts about the historicity of Sun Tsu.
The only surviving source on the life of Sun Tzu is the biography written in the 2nd century BC by the historian Sima Qian, who describes him as a general who lived in the state of Wu in the 6th century BC. However, the biography is not consistent with other sources for the period, and both the form and content of the book indicate that it was most likely written between 400 BC and 320 BC.
The historicity of Sun Tsu is discussed extensively in the introduction to Giles' 1910 translation available as a Project Gutenberg online text. This gives a feeling of the doubt and confusion which has surrounded this subject. In 1972 a set of bamboo engraved texts were discovered in a grave near Linyi in Shandong[1] these have helped in confirming the text which was already known and have also added new sections [2]. This text which has been dated some time between 134-118 B.C. [3] and so rules out older theories that parts of the text had been written much later.
Sun Pin, a descendent of Sun Tsu is also wrote a text known as the Art of War or possibly more accurately the Art of Warfare which was more concerned with the practical matters of warfare. [4]
See also
External link
- The Art of War translated by Lionel Giles (1910), Project Gutenberg edition with considerable (but dated) text on Sun Tsu
- The Art of War, By Sun Tzu
da:Sun Tzu de:Sunzi es:Sun Tzu fr:Sun Zi ja:孫武 pt:Sun Tzu fi:Sunzi zh:孙武
