The Art of War

Sun Tzu (also Sun Zi) was long thought to be identical with the noble Chinese general Sun Wu (Wu meaning “warlike” or “martial”), who was born around 500 BC in Eastern China. Later, in his Records of the Grand Historian, the historiographer Sima Qian (circa 145–86 BC) tells the story of how Sun Wu proved his military prowess by teaching the 180 concubines of King Helu how to become soldiers. When two of the king’s most favored concubines didn’t take their jobs as company commanders seriously enough, Sun Wu reportedly had them executed, despite the king’s protests. He then told the mourning king that the concubine army would now walk through fire and water for him. Yet about 1,300 years after this anecdote was published, doubts about Sun Tzu’s historical existence began to emerge. The name Sun Tzu consists of the family name Sun and the suffix Tzu (“master”) – an honorific that tended to be awarded by posterity only. Moreover, every chapter in the Chinese original begins with the formula “Master Sun said,” suggesting the co-authorship of different disciples and descendants. Finally, Sun Bin (Bin meaning “the cripple”) – presumably a great-grandson of Sun Wu – wrote a military treatise by the same title about 150 years after the estimated origin of The Art of War. Some scholars even think of both Suns as one and the same person. In any event, anachronisms and various linguistic styles in the text seem to suggest that different individuals complemented the work and adapted it to their respective concerns across the centuries.