[go: up one dir, main page]
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Art of War
    The Art of War
    The Art of War
    Ebook53 pages52 minutes

    The Art of War

    By Sun Tsu

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    • Terrain

    • Military Strategy

    • Spies

    • War

    • Art of War

    • Enemy Within

    • Ancient Wisdom

    • Battle of Wits

    • Cost of War

    • Surprise Attack

    • Military Genius

    • Importance of Intelligence

    • General's Dilemma

    • Value of Discipline

    About this ebook

    Written 2500 years ago, The Art of War is the oldest military treatise in the world, a classic study of competition and rivalry that has been utilized by soldiers ever since. Napoleon studied its strategies and tactics. It is required reading for intelligence personnel in the United States Marine Corps. "Warriors" of Wall Street and in corporation cultures rely on it for guidance. It's even been rumored to help players win at the board game Risk. This 1910 translation by the British Museum's Lionel Giles is the most popular one available, a highly readable version of this still startlingly relevant text.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCosimo Classics
    Release dateApr 1, 2016
    ISBN9781616409814
    The Art of War
    Author

    Sun Tsu

    SUN TZU was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in China in the 6th century BC. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, a widely influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and Eastern philosophy. Sun Tzu is revered in China as a legendary historical figure. His birth name was Sun Wu; the name Sun Tzu by which he is best known is an honorific that means "Master Sun."

    Related to The Art of War

    Related ebooks

    Asian History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Art of War

    4/5

    3,057 ratings58 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      Tactics and strategies that apply to everyday life. This book is excellent reading to make you think about how to deal with the day to day struggles of life. It helps you position you versus your opponent. Your opponent need not be any one person. It could be a corporation. It could be an establishment. It could be a situation you are facing. I was once told that what you get out of a book is the effort you put into a book. It is my hope that this book can help someone master how they deal with day to day life. Let me know what you think. By the way, how many Enron or Worldcomm employees do you think read this book?

      On another note, I would ask that you do not take this book literally. It is laced with allegory and a ton of symbolism. Please take its contents and apply them to your life for the good of all.
    • 4/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      A classic! Well worth the read, and looking forward to reading again in the future.
    • 2/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      This is a manual and reads like one. Better to take in very small doses, digest and discuss rather than to read continuously.
    • 4/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally here.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write essays on whether or not they deserve the label. The Art of War is essay #27 of this series.The story in a nutshell:More of a technical manual than a piece of general literature, The Art of War is a field guide of sorts by famed Chinese military leader Sun Tzu, written it's believed sometime in the 6th century BC (during the period when China was coming together as a unified empire for the first time in history), as a way of instructing other commanders how to have as much success on the battlefield as he had had. (And please know that there's a debate among scholars as well regarding whether Sun Tzu even wrote this book by himself, or if like many other classics from antiquity this isn't in fact a sly compilation, gathering up the best thoughts back then from amongst a whole group of military strategists.) Now of course let's not forget that Sun Tzu was a Taoist as well, so of course his particular advice is going to be Taoist in nature, a very important thing to understand in order to really "get" this book; he sees the best war, for example, as the one that's never actually fought, because you've already dismantled the enemy's forces through sabotage and cunning to the point where they can't put up a resistance in the first place. And so it is throughout this extremely slim book (which in fact is more like a long magazine article) -- chapter after chapter of surprisingly spiritual text concerning the fine art of getting what you want, even when other people are actively trying to stop you from doing so.The argument for it being a classic:It's a 2,500-year-old book still being read and studied on a daily basis, argue its fans; what more do you want? And in the meanwhile, it's influenced nearly every Western military leader since first being translated into a Romantic language (French) in 1782, racking up a whole list of self-declared admirers from Napoleon to Norman Schwarzkopf. And if this weren't enough, starting in the 1980s it also gained a whole new life as a surprisingly apt if not Machiavellian guide to the corporate business world, best typified by symbol-of-yuppie-greed Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone's fantastic movie Wall Street, who is constantly walking around quoting from it as a way to justify his monstrous, inhuman actions. If all of this isn't enough to safely consider a book a classic, ask its fans, what is?The argument against:The case against this being a classic seems to be one used a lot with books over a thousand years old; that even if that book turns out to be historically important (and it usually does), it might be better at this point to actually study the book and how it affected society, not read the book itself for pleasure anymore. Always remember, that's part of how I'm defining "classic" here in this CCLaP 100 series, is not just how important that title has been to human history, but also whether it's worth literally sitting down and reading it page-for-page yourself, no matter if you have any specific interest in that book's subject or not. If it's yes on the former but no on the latter, as critics of this book claim, then by my definition it's not a classic, but rather simply a historically important book that should be studied by the general public but not necessarily read.My verdict:So let me start by admitting how surprisingly readable this is for being 2,500 years old, and that it really does translate metaphorically to the business world surprisingly elegantly; after all, since it's a guide to war written by a Taoist, it's more of a symbolic examination of how to get out of life what you want the most, even in the face of tough opposition, with advice that is surprisingly relevant to the modern world even when he's talking about the mechanics of medieval Asian warfare. (Just for one example, near the beginning he talks in one paragraph about how a successful commander will literally steal the food of their enemy, both to sap the enemy's strength and to avoid the burden of having to carry all that food to battle themselves; this may not seem to have much relevance to the modern business world at first, until you stop and think about it in terms of stealing talent from your competitors, literally the intellectual "food" nourishing their "army" of goods and services competing against your own.)That said, though, I think ultimately I'm going to have to side with the critics this time; that unless you're a military commander or corporate raider yourself, most people's eyes are going to quickly gloss over while trying to read this book, merely after the first few pages. Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely think this should be a primer for people who are getting into the profession themselves; this should for sure be a must-read not only for soldiers, for example, but also the politicians in charge of those soldiers' budgets. But this is a perfect example of the surprisingly complicated process of determining whether a book is a classic or not, the entire reason I started this essay series in the first place; because unless competitive strategy actually is your business, most people will find it more rewarding to spend their time reading up on how this book has affected history, and of the circumstances in ancient China that led to it getting written in the first place. There's really only one major lesson in The Art of War for a non-military general audience to get -- that most battles are won based on how well one can surprise the enemy, usually by deceiving them using their own weaknesses (to act incompetent when the enemy is haughty, for example, threatening when they're meek, picking them off at the edges when they outnumber you, destroying their supply lines when they're far from home); for those not interested in the nitty-gritty of how to actually accomplish such things, though, there's actually a lot more to be learned by studying how such a thing has been attempted over the centuries, making the book certainly important but not necessarily a classic.Is it a classic? No
    • 2/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      Pretty dull going, even by audiobook. The narrators were great, though, and there were times that the footnotes saved me.
    • 4/5

      Sep 21, 2018

      A very quick read of a classic. I had always been meaning to get around to this book, and I did not realize how short it was. The version I have contains more commentary than the actual writing, and I did not bother with the commentary.

      The book is basically a series of maxims that describe how to lead as a general at war. I think its appeal is universal, and many of the ideas can be applied as strategic thinking in other aspects of life. I don't think it was all that profound, but then again, its ideas have been used for centuries. It was nice to be able to read where a lot of them came from.
    • 5/5

      Nov 16, 2024

      This Is Very Good, Maybe This Can Help You
      Download Full Ebook Very Detail Here :
      https://amzn.to/3XOf46C
      - You Can See Full Book/ebook Offline Any Time
      - You Can Read All Important Knowledge Here
      - You Can Become A Master In Your Business
    • 1/5

      Jan 20, 2025

      Interesting if you are going to role play a general or ambitious warrior.
    • 3/5

      Jan 11, 2025

      I honestly have no idea why this is always on the list of must-read books. You are basically reading the bullet points of someone's strategic plan to win a battle. Meh. At least it was only an hour and a half.
    • 4/5

      Oct 24, 2024

      Many of Sun Tzu's ideas are common-sense enough, but succinctly put here. It's a quick, easy read, so it's not hard to make the case that it's worth the time. But gliding through it effortlessly will make it difficult for the ideas to really stick. So I guess it's also easy to make the case for at least one re-read. I'll probably give it another go myself in the near future, but for now I'm happy with the bits and pieces I've gleaned. It certainly didn't change my life or anything, but then I didn't expect it to.
    • 3/5

      Oct 18, 2024

      Tempted to give it four stars because it is so much better than so much other Heinlein. But that's not worth much, actually. I did have to edit the blurb, however.
    • 1/5

      Jan 29, 2024

      Somewhat hilariously literal. I'm not sure why this is still used as such a popular business and strategy book. Praise for being extremely clear and concise, but criticism for stating the obvious while seeming to be willfully ignorant of external factors with advice along the lines of "Don't make any mistakes and you will win." WELL THANKS. NEVER WOULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT MYSELF.
    • 2/5

      Jan 7, 2023

      Vapid martial homilies.
    • 3/5

      Oct 27, 2019

      you kind of have to read this, yah. so privately canonized.
    • 3/5

      Dec 16, 2013

      Inspiration comes from many places and The Art of War is one of those books mentioned frequently in my circles. It's one of those books I've been meaning to get to for years and, while I am not sorry that I finally got to it, its usefulness to me is limited.

      Most of the non-strategic advice is good leadership advice. Things such as being a leader means setting the standard for how the work should be done, including getting one's hands dirty with the lowliest tasks. I've read plenty of stuff about leadership, and setting the example, that there really wasn't anything new for me here.

      Since I'm not interested in military strategies, the rest was dry.

      From a strictly historic perspective, I can understand the importance of this treatise. But as an outstanding example of leadership and strategy in the 21st century? I'm not seeing it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5

      Jul 5, 2010

      The oldest military treatise on war. This one is Tops! Translation by Lionel Giles and with original Chinese.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5

      Oct 2, 2007

      This is a beautiful and scholarly presentation of a truly elegant piece of ancient literature. Griffith puts forth his interpretation of "The Art of War" based on a revision of his Ph.D. thesis presented some years ago. Commentaries from several sources are included along side of Griffith's own translation. Footnotes are ubiquitous in the text explaining various discrepancies in interpretations, translations and historical contexts. There is a nicely-done introduction discussing various scholarly debates surrounding "The Art of War" including, original authorship, and date of creation.

      Beyond the content, the presentation of the book is beautiful. The cover is silk fabric with silk-screened golden Chinese characters on the cover. There is also an attached black ribbon bookmark. The pages are thick construction done with a glossy-print and includes many beautiful color plates placed throughout the text.

      Really, I believe this to be an exquisite presentation of this piece of literature. Not only is the presentation exceptional, the scholarly content is both attainable and interesting. This is an excellent piece to have in any library.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5

      Feb 1, 2020

      “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 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?
    • 4/5

      Oct 22, 2019

      Defiantly some good tips in here. I can see why other countries armies are so well disciplined if they still use these tactics. Some of them could also work for dealing with people as well. Some handy things in here.

      It's easy to read, but he repeats things a lot, and some of the sentence are worded strangely. And then, some lines are written like poetry.

      It was a something different, and I'm glad I picked it up.
    • 4/5

      Mar 3, 2019

      I'm so glad I finally read this historic book. I found it very interesting and understand why it has been adapted to suit other fields -- notably management. And the version of the book I bought is beautiful in itself. Bound in traditional Chinese style, with each page folded in half and only printed on the outside. Hard to rate -- it is what it is as they say -- but I'm rating it highly because it has stood the test of time.
    • 5/5

      Dec 4, 2018

      An enduring classic, an absolute must-read for every business person and military mind the world over.
    • 5/5

      Nov 21, 2017

      I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book, to be honest. I just made a promise to myself I would read more classics and this was a short one to get in so I can reach my reading goal. However, I ended up really, really enjoying it. I'm not a soldier by any stretch of the imagination, but there is good, solid advice in this book that is still relevant thousands of years after it was written. It's worth a read for sure, and it's so short you can get through it quickly. I would recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.
    • 5/5

      Nov 8, 2017

      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.
    • 2/5

      Jan 2, 2017

      During a sermon, the rabbi talked about this book and said that it was really a philosophy on how to live life. When I started reading it, I saw that it really is a book on how to wage war. Definitely not what I expected and definitely not a book I would ever want to read.
    • 4/5

      Feb 1, 2016

      I read this and let my mind wander a little, but not too much. Invariably whatever I think about mixes with the words, and elegant, clear observations come out. It's like guided meditation.
    • 5/5

      Jan 10, 2016

      The version I have also has a second section for commentaries on all the passages. It's an incredibly useful and insightful book, and not necessarily just for literal war.
    • 5/5

      Jul 6, 2015

      Everyone should read this.

      It tells you as much about motivation and human compunction than any other book Ive ever read. This should be required reading for teachers, businessmen, cops, everyone that every has to deal with a group of people in a possibly hostile setting.
    • 4/5

      May 30, 2015

      It's amazing that this advice is still quite relevant 2500 years after the fact. Some of it, of course, isn't, but that'll happen. The historical allusions in Giles' translation/commentary are pretty useful, though occasionally it gets really deep into Chinese history and you forget who you are and what you're reading. What dynasty are we in again?
    • 3/5

      Apr 19, 2015

      The original book was interesting but the commentary portion of the book was insightful. I liked hearing perspective on Master Sun's work from other ancient military leaders.
    • 4/5

      Jan 9, 2015

      Fascinating. My particular copy (an audiobook) included modern comparisons between each chapter which was horribly annoying. The observations in the book maintain their usefulness to the present.

    Book preview

    The Art of War - Sun Tsu

    The Art

    of War

    SUN TZU

    TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE

    BY LIONEL GILES

    New York

    The Art of War was originally published in 1910.

    Cover Copyright © 2010 by Cosimo, Inc. Cover Design by www.popshopstudio.com. Cover image © istockphoto.com, #2149228

    ISBN: 978-1-61640-981-4

    For information, visit our website:

    www.cosimobooks.com

    All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able

    to attack we must seem unable; when using our forces,

    we must seem inactive; when we are near, we make

    the enemy believe that we are away; when far away,

    we must make him believe we are near.

    —from Laying Plans

    Table of Contents

    I. LAYING PLANS

    II. WAGING WAR

    III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM

    IV. TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS

    V. USE OF ENERGY

    VI. WEAK POINTS AND STRONG

    VII. MANEUVERING AN ARMY

    VIII. VARIATION OF TACTICS

    IX. THE ARMY ON THE MARCH

    X. CLASSIFICATION OF TERRAIN

    XI. THE NINE SITUATIONS

    XII. THE ATTACK BY FIRE

    XIII. THE USE OF SPIES

    I. LAYING PLANS

    Sun Tzu said: 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.

    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: The Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, The Commander and Method and Discipline.

    The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

    Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

    Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

    The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.

    By Method and Discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

    These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

    Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:-

    Seven Searching Questions

    Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?

    Which of the two generals has most ability?

    With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?

    On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?

    Which army is stronger?

    On which side are officers and men more highly trained?

    In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

    By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.

    The general, who harkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command!

    The general, who harkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat: let such a one

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1