The Art of War: Sun Zi's Military Methods

by Sun Zi, Victor Mair

Overview

Compiled during the Warring States period of 475-221 B.C.E., The Art of War has had an enormous impact on the development of Chinese military strategy over the past two thousand years and occupies an important place in East Asian intellectual history. It is the first known attempt to formulate a rational basis for the planning and conduct of military operations, and while numerous editions of the work exist, Victor Mair's translation is the first to remain true to the original structure and essential style of the text.

Mair's fidelity to the original, along with his insightful commentary and reliance on archaeologically recovered manuscripts, breaks new ground in solving The Art of War's difficult textual and contextual problems. He confronts complex questions concerning the authorship of the work, asserting that Sun Wu, a supposed strategist of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.E.) to whom the text is traditionally attributed, never existed. Instead, Mair claims that The Art of War coalesced over a period of around seventy-five years, from the middle of the fourth century to the first quarter of the third century B.C.E.

Mair also reveals the way The Art of War reflects historical developments in technological and military strategy in civilizations throughout Eurasia, especially in regards to iron metallurgy. He demonstrates the close link between the philosophy in The Art of War and Taoism and discusses the reception of the text from the classical period to today. Finally, Mair highlights previously unaddressed stylistic and statistical aspects and includes philological annotations that present new ways of approaching the intellectual and social background of the work. A phenomenal achievement, Mair's comprehensive translation is an indispensable resource for today's students, strategists, and scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231133821
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/08/2007
Series:	Translations from the Asian Classics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	283,213
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Victor Mair is a graduate of Dartmouth College, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and Harvard University. He is professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania and is the founder and editor of Sino-Platonic Papers, an academic journal that examines diverse aspects of Chinese language, script, and culture, paying particular attention to historical relationships with other societies in Eurasia. For the past two decades, he has led a major international investigation of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age peoples of Eastern Central Asia, a project that has resulted in numerous publications and several films. His Columbia books include The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature and The Columbia History of Chinese Literature.

Table of Contents

Foreward by Arthur Waldron
Preface
Principles of Translation
Guide to Pronunciation
Key Terms
List of Abbreviations
Precis
Introduction
Chapter 1. Initial Assessments
Chapter 2. Doing Battle
Chapter 3. Planning for the Attack
Chapter 4. Positioning
Chapter 5. Configuration
Chapter 6. Emptiness and Solidity
Chapter 7. The Struggle of Armies
Chapter 8. Nine Varieties
Chapter 9. Marching the Army
Chapter 10. Terrain Types
Chapter 11. Nine Types of Terrain
Chapter 12. Incendiary Attack
Chapter 13. Using Spies
Appendix. The Pseudo-Biography of Sun Wu
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Nicola Di Cosmo

Victor Mair's brilliant translation of the Sunzi bingfa is especially commendable for its clarity and elegance. Although this classic text of Chinese military thought enjoys several authoritative English translations, Mair succeeds in providing a novel, insightful, and yet rigorous approach to its history and interpretation. The author's consummate knowledge of Classical Chinese and sensitivity to the nuances of the text shows it in a genuinely fresh way. Mair presents the Sunzi bingfa not as an exotic well of wisdom but as a genuine historical product, and Western readers will be able to enjoy it on its own terms and understand better what they are reading, and why.

David Graff

After reading Victor Mair's elegant new rendering of the ancient text, I was left without any doubt that it is an important contribution to our understanding of both the meaning of the text itself and the evolution of Chinese military thought. While some translations in the past have been informed by philosophical studies or the translator's own personal experience of modern warfare and intelligence matters, what Mair brings to bear is a remarkable feel for the Chinese language of ancient times that results in lucid and persuasive renderings of many of the more enigmatic and obscure passages. He steers a judicious course between the free translation and the overly literal, and further aids our comprehension by providing a concise glossary explaining the key terms that appear in the text.

Editorial Reviews

Lean, clear, all fustian removed.

Japan Times - Donald Richie

Mair provides insight on how this manual came to exist.

Indianapolis Star

Mair's excellent new translation of Sunzi's (Sun Tzu) Art of War... brings a new, and extremely useful perspective to the text.

Journal of Military History - Peter Lorge

Mair's excellent new translation of Sunzi's (Sun Tzu) Art of War... brings a new, and extremely useful perspective to the text.

— Peter Lorge

Journal of Military History

Lean, clear, all fustian removed.

— Donald Richie

Japan Times