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This unparalleled edition features the complete classic translation by Lionel Giles and an introduction, historical notes, epilogue, and study guide by PEN Award-winning historian Mitch Horowitz.
About the author
SUN TZU was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in China in the 6th century BC. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, a widely influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and Eastern philosophy. Sun Tzu is revered in China as a legendary historical figure. His birth name was Sun Wu; the name Sun Tzu by which he is best known is an honorific that means "Master Sun."
Summary
Discover the True Meaning of Victory
The Art of War is one of the most widely read classics of history—and one of the most practical works of philosophy ever written. Now, for the first time, this “landmark edition” presents the unparalleled 1910 translation by British sinologist Lionel Giles (1875-1958) along with Giles’ equally potent 1905 translation of the Tao Te Ching, the work upon which The Art of War stands, for a complete and transformative experience of martial wisdom.
PEN Award-winning historian Mitch Horowitz introduces and annotates this volume, highlighting the complementary insights of The Art of War and the Tao Te Ching. Mitch’s footnotes clarify the meaning and context of The Art of War, as his introduction—a compelling study in itself—explores the relevance, history, and authorship of these ageless classics. This volume also features an integrated index of The Art of War and the Tao Te Ching, helping the reader locate commonalities between them.
“My hope is that your reading The Art of War alongside Giles’ translation of the Tao Te Ching,” Mitch writes in the introduction, “will provide you—at times joltingly—with a powerful new estimate and measure of personal behavior…The Art of War is a book of ethical power—not force, which dies with its user, but power which is generative and renewable.”
"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting."—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
