Sun Tzu
Author biography. Trumpet Publishing House Authors Directory.
Who he was
Sun Tzu is the name traditionally given to the author of The Art of War, a general said to have served the state of Wu in eastern China. Tradition places him around the fifth century BCE. Whether he existed as a single man is debated by historians, and we will not pretend otherwise. The earliest surviving text was recovered from a tomb in 1972 and dates to roughly the second century BCE.
What is beyond dispute is the setting. The book comes out of a stretch of Chinese history so consumed by fighting that one era of it is simply called the Warring States period. States rose and vanished. A commander who guessed wrong destroyed not only an army but a people.
Why it was written
It was written for a ruler, not a reader. It is an operational manual, meant to be used by a man responsible for other men's lives and his state's survival. That is why there is no rhetoric in it and no glory. Glory is expensive and he treats it as a weakness.
His central argument runs directly against instinct: the finest victory is the one you were never forced to fight for. Know the ground before committing to it. Know the other side better than they know themselves. Refuse the battle you cannot afford, however much your pride wants it. A long war ruins the winner.
The book we publish, and why
We publish The Art of War inside Mastery of the Military Mind, alongside Napoleon's Maxims of War, so a reader can see two commanders twenty-three centuries apart arriving at the same conclusions by different routes.
It is read now by people who will never see a battlefield. Anyone who tenders, negotiates, competes for a contract, or runs a crew is doing what the book describes: working out where you are strong, where the other party is weak, and which fights are not worth having. The practical benefit is restraint. You stop swinging at every fight you are offered, and you stop announcing your position before you have to.
How to read it
It is short enough to finish in an evening and dense enough to reread for thirty years. Do not race it. The thirteen chapters are not an argument that builds to a conclusion; each stands more or less on its own, so you can open it anywhere.
Expect terrain. Several chapters discuss ground types, fire, and the handling of spies in literal military terms. Read those as written first, then translate. The man describing marshy ground is describing any position that looks passable and will swallow you.
On a first pass, mark the lines that sting. On a second, work out which current situation each one is describing. That second pass is where the book does its work.
Pair it with
- Napoleon's Maxims of War, which sits in the same volume. Two commanders, twenty-three centuries apart, no shared tradition, largely the same conclusions. The agreement is the argument.
- Machiavelli, The Prince. Sun Tzu on the opponent across the field; Machiavelli on the one at the table beside you.
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives. Sun Tzu tells you what a good commander does. Plutarch shows you men who did it and men who could not, and what the difference was made of.
The works
Only one work is attributed to him.
- The Art of War, thirteen chapters. Composition traditionally placed in the fifth century BCE; the earliest surviving manuscript dates to about the second century BCE.
A separate military treatise is attributed to Sun Bin, described in some sources as a descendant, and recovered from the same 1972 tomb find. It is a different work by a different hand and we do not publish it.
General reference on Sun Tzu. External links open outside Trumpet Publishing House.
Our editions
This collection grows as further editions and formats are added, so it is worth returning to.
All Trumpet editions featuring Sun Tzu