
Chinese Reading Center
孫子兵法 Sun Zi's Art of War
This 2,500 year-old book proves that while the weaponry has changed over time, the rules for successful warfare strategies have not. It is a surprisingly compact distillation of strategic principles that is still as useful today as it was when Sun Zi [Sun Tzu] first wrote it. Its principles were applied by the combatants of the "Three Kingdoms" period, Mao Tse-Tung, and the corporate warriors in the sales and marketing departments of today.
Notes on the Translation
The complete text of the Art of War is presented here with side-by-side translation. The English text of the translation is derived from the work of Lionel Giles (1910). To aid current bilingual readers, we have replaced the transliterated Chinese names from their original Wade-Giles form to their pinyin form.
繁體 Trad ↔ 简体 Simp | Links to Chapter |
---|---|
始計第一 | Chapter 1: Laying Plans |
作戰第二 | Chapter 2: Waging War |
謀攻第三 | Chapter 3: Attack by Stratagem |
軍形第四 | Chapter 4: Tactical Dispositions |
兵勢第五 | Chapter 5: Energy |
虛實第六 | Chapter 6: Weak Points and Strong |
軍爭第七 | Chapter 7: Maneuvering |
九變第八 | Chapter 8: Variation in Tactics |
行軍第九 | Chapter 9: The Army on the March |
地形第十 | Chapter 10: Terrain |
九地第十一 | Chapter 11: The Nine Situations |
火攻第十二 | Chapter 12: The Attack by Fire |
用間第十三 | Chapter 13: The Use of Spies |