孫子兵法 The Art of War

This Chinese/English edition of The Art of War, the oldest military classic of the corpus of Chinese literature, is translated from its original antiquated Chinese into English and modern Chinese by Cheng Lin, the renowned scholar of Qin Dynasty texts, based on the text annotated by scholars over the centuries.

The authorship of The Art of War was ascribed to Suen Wuu, whose ability as an organizer and disciplinarian was amply proved in actual warfare after he became a general of Wu State. He was the hero of many most astonishing military exploits. Once with only 30,000 men he delivered a crushing defeat on Chuu’s 200,000 men.

The Art of War was first made famous by Emperor Wuu of Wey Dynasty who was himself a great statesman-general well versed in the arts of peace and war. He was its first editor and commentator. Since his time, there have been many other annotated editions.

This book was first translated into French in 1772 by a Jesuit missionary J.J. M. Amiot and rendered into English by Lionel Giles whose Sun Tzu on the Art of War first appeared in 1910 and was published by Luzac Company of London.