The Art of War is the most disruptive and revolutionary book ever written about human conflict. Written in the fifth century BC during the Warring States period of ancient China and attributed to the legendary Master Sun (Sunzi), the book turned traditional thinking about warfare on its head. It advocates a radical new way of viewing warfare, replacing the traditional view of war as a form of ritualized sacrifice with a purely practical and modern view. According to Sunzi, the goals of war are achieved with hardheaded practicality, battle strategy is dictated by terrain, weather and spycraft rather than reading signs and omens, the objective of war is profit rather than glory, and the highest form of victory is winning without fighting at all.This book, by the experienced translation team of Pepper and Wang, expresses the Art of War in simple, contemporary language while remaining true to the rhythms and poetic structure of the original Chinese. A key feature of the book is its innovative step-by-step translation that lets the reader not only read the English version, but to gain deeper insights from the original text even if they don’t speak or read Chinese.
قائمة المحتويات
Welcome ix The Art of War
Chapter 1 – Planning 2
Chapter 2 – Waging War 5
Chapter 3 – Plan of Attack 7
Chapter 4 – Tactics 10
Chapter 5 – Military Power 12
Chapter 6– Weakness and Strength 15
Chapter 7 – Battle 19
Chapter 8 – The Many Transformations 23
Chapter 9 – Deployment of Troops 24
Chapter 10 – Terrain 30
Chapter 11 – Types of Terrain 35
Chapter 12 – Attack by Fire 44
Chapter 13 – Use of Spies 47
Chinese Grammar Notes 51
Reading the Commentary 60
The Art of War with Step-by-Step Translation and Commentary
Chapter 1 – Planning 62
Chapter 2 – Waging War 74
Chapter 3 – Plan of Attack 83
Chapter 4 – Tactics 93
Chapter 5 – Military Power 102
Chapter 6– Weakness and Strength 113
Chapter 7 – Battle 128
Chapter 8 – The Many Transformations 140
Chapter 9 – Deployment of Troops 146
Chapter 10 – Terrain 164
Chapter 11 – Types of Terrain 182
Chapter 12 – Attack by Fire 217
Chapter 13 – Use of Spies 226
Online Resources 240
References 242
About the Authors 246
عن المؤلف
Xiao Hui Wang is a native Chinese speaker born in China. She came to the United States for studies in biomedical neuroscience and medical imaging, and has more than 25 years of experience in academic and clinical research. She has been teaching Chinese for more than 10 years, and has extensive experience translating English to Chinese as well as Chinese to English.