The Art of War by Sun Tzu pdf book download

Book: The Art of War

Author: Sun Tzu

Translator: Lionel Giles

Release Date: May 1994 

Last updated: September 15, 2019

Language: English.

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Translated from the Chinese with Introduction and Critical Notes by Lionel Giles, M.A.

🔍In This Book________________________

CHUAN, adding that there were two other CHUAN besides. This has brought forth a theory, that the bulk of these 82 chapters consisted of other writings of Sun Tzu -- we should call them apocryphal -- similar to the WEN TA, of which a specimen dealing with the Nine Situations [15] is preserved in the T`UNG TIEN, and another in Ho Shin's commentary. It is suggested that before his interview with Ho Lu, Sun Tzu had only written the 13 chapters, but afterwards composed a sort of exegesis in the form of question and answer between himself and the King. Pi I-hsun, the author of the SUN 

TZU HSU LU, backs this up with a quotation from the WU YUEH CH`UN CH`IU: "The King of Wu summoned Sun Tzu, and asked him questions about the art of war. Each time he set forth a chapter of his work, the King could not find words enough to praise him." As he points out, if the whole work was expounded on the same scale as in the above- mentioned fragments, the total number of chapters could not fail to be considerable. Then the numero.

The Text of Sun Tzu

I have found it difficult to glean much about the history of Sun

Tzu's text. 

The quotations that occur in early authors go to show that

the "13 chapters" of which Ssu-ma Ch’ien speaks were essentially the

same as those now extant. We have his word for it that they were

widely circulated in his day, and can only regret that he refrained from

discussing them on that account. Sun Hsing-yen says in his preface:—

During the Ch’in and Han dynasties Sun Tzu's Art of War was in general use

amongst military commanders, but they seem to have treated it as a work of

mysterious import, and were unwilling to expound it for the benefit of posterity.

Thus it came about that Wei Wu was the first to write a commentary on it.

As we have already seen, there is no reasonable ground to suppose

that Ts’ao Kung tampered with the text. But the text itself is often so

obscure, and the number of editions which appeared from that time

onward so great, especially during the T’ang and Sung dynasties, that

it would be surprising if numerous corruptions had not managed to

creep in. Towards the middle of the Sung period, by which time all the

chief commentaries on Sun Tzu were in existence, a certain Chi T’ien-

pao published a work in 15 chuan entitled "Sun Tzu with the collected

commentaries of ten writers." There was another text, with variant

readings put forward by Chu Fu of Ta-hsing, which also had

supporters among the scholars of that period; but in the Ming editions,

Sun Hsing-yen tells us, these readings were for some reason or other

no longer put into circulation. Thus, until the end of the 18th century,

the text in sole possession of the field was one derived from Chi

T’ien-pao's edition, although no actual copy of that important work

was known to have survived. That, therefore, is the text of Sun Tzu.

which appears in the War section of the great Imperial encyclopedia

printed in 1726, the Ku Chin T’u Shu Chi Ch’eng. Another copy at my

disposal of what is practically the same text, with slight variations, is

that contained in the "Eleven philosophers of the Chou and Ch’in

dynasties" [1758]. And the Chinese printed in Capt. Calthrop's first

edition is evidently a similar version which has filtered through

Japanese channels. So things remained until Sun Hsing-yen [1752-

1818], a distinguished antiquarian and classical scholar, who claimed

to be an actual descendant of Sun Wu, [36] accidentally discovered a

copy of Chi T’ien-pao's long-lost work, when on a visit to the library

of the Hua-yin temple. [37] Appended to it was the I Shuo of Cheng

Yu-Hsien, mentioned in the T’ung Chih, and also believed to have

perished. 

This is what Sun Hsing-yen designates as the "original

edition (or text)"—a rather misleading name, for it cannot by any

means claim to set before us the text of Sun Tzu in its pristine purity.

Chi T’ien-pao was a careless compiler, and appears to have been

content to reproduce the somewhat debased version current in his day,

without troubling to collate it with the earliest editions then available.

Fortunately, two versions of Sun Tzu, even older than the newly

discovered work, were still extant, one buried in the T’ung Tien, Tu

Yu's great treatise on the Constitution, the other similarly enshrined in

the T’ai P’ing Yu Lan encyclopedia. In both the complete text is to be

found, though split up into fragments, intermixed with other matter,

and scattered piecemeal over a number of different sections.

Considering that the Yu Lan takes us back to the year 983, and the

T’ung Tien about 200 years further still, to the middle of the T’ang

dynasty, the value of these early transcripts of Sun Tzu can hardly be

overestimated. Yet the idea of utilizing them does not seem to have

occurred to anyone until Sun Hsing-yen, acting under Government

instructions, undertook a thorough recension of the text. This is his

own account:—

Because of the numerous mistakes in the text of Sun Tzu which his editors

had handed down, the Government ordered that the ancient edition [of Chi

T’ien-pao] should be used, and that the text should be revised and corrected

throughout. It happened that Wu Nien-hu, the Governor Pi Kua, and Hsi, a

graduate of the second degree, had all devoted themselves to this study, probably

surpassing me therein. Accordingly, I have had the whole work cut on blocks as

a textbook for military men.

The three individuals here referred to had evidently been occupied

on the text of Sun Tzu prior to Sun Hsing-yen's commission, but we

are left in doubt as to the work they really accomplished. At any rate,

the new edition, when ultimately produced, appeared in the names of

Sun Hsing-yen and only one co-editor Wu Jen-shi. They took the

"original edition" as their basis, and by careful comparison with older

versions, as well as the extant commentaries and other sources of

information such as the I Shuo, succeeded in restoring a very large

number of doubtful passages, and turned out, on the whole, what must

be accepted as the closest approximation we are ever likely to get to

Sun Tzu's original work. This is what will hereafter be denominated

the "standard text."

The copy which I have used belongs to a reissue dated 1877. It is in

6 pen, forming part of a well-printed set of 23 early philosophical

works in 83 pen. [38] It opens with a preface by Sun Hsing-yen

(largely quoted in this introduction), vindicating the traditional view

of Sun Tzu's life and performances, and summing up in remarkably

concise fashion the evidence in its favor. This is followed by Ts’ao

Kung's preface to his edition, and the biography of Sun Tzu from the

Shih Chi, both translated above. Then come, firstly, Cheng Yu-hsien's

I Shuo, [39] with author's preface, and next, a short miscellany of

historical and bibliographical information 

entitled Sun Tzu Hsu Lu,

compiled by Pi I-hsun. As regards the body of the work, each separate

sentence is followed by a note on the text, if required, and then by the

various commentaries appertaining to it, arranged in chronological

order. These we shall now proceed to discuss briefly, one by one.