Books Written by Sun Tzu

One. The Art of War, a military treatise in 13 chapters, is the only work attributed to him. This page lists it with eight key English translations.

There is only The Art of War, usually dated to the fifth century BC. Its main English translations, in order, are Calthrop (1905), Giles (1910), Griffith (1963), Cleary (1988), Ames (1993), Minford (2002), Mair (2007) and Nylan (2020).

With The Art of War itself, in Lionel Giles’s 1910 translation, which is free online and the source of most familiar quotations. Read a modern version beside it, such as Samuel B. Griffith’s (1963) or Michael Nylan’s (2020).

The Art of War, his only book. It has been translated many times, is on the US Marine Corps Professional Reading Program list, and is widely quoted in business and sport.

It is disputed. Sima Qian’s Shiji, written about four centuries later, describes Sun Wu as a general who served King Helü of Wu. Since about the twelfth century scholars have doubted this, because the earlier history Zuo zhuan never mentions him and the name appears in no text before the Shiji. Many now think the book was shaped by several hands; most date the earlier text to between about 500 and 430 BC. The 1972 Yinqueshan find shows it existed by the second century BC, but not who wrote it.

By tradition from about 544 to 496 BC, at the end of China’s Spring and Autumn period. These dates are traditional, not documented.

No reliable record says. Because his existence is itself uncertain, nothing firm is known about his death.

Sima Qian tells how King Helü tested Sun Tzu by asking him to drill the palace women. When they laughed at his orders, he had the king’s two favourite concubines, whom he had made company leaders, executed, and the rest then obeyed. Scholars treat the story as legend.

In Lionel Giles’s translation: Laying Plans, Waging War, Attack by Stratagem, Tactical Dispositions, Energy, Weak Points and Strong, Manœuvring, Variation of Tactics, The Army on the March, Terrain, The Nine Situations, The Attack by Fire, and The Use of Spies.

In Giles’s translation, from chapter III: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting,” and “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” The often-quoted “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” is a later paraphrase.

It depends on what you want. Lionel Giles (1910) is the classic and free; Samuel B. Griffith (1963) gives the military context; Roger T. Ames (1993) uses the Yinqueshan manuscripts; John Minford (2002) and Michael Nylan (2020) are clear modern versions. Reading two side by side is the best approach.

There is no evidence that he did. A French translation by the Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot appeared in Paris in 1772, and the story that Napoleon studied it is often repeated, but it is a legend.

No. Lao Tzu is the traditional author of the Tao Te Ching, a philosophical text. “Tzu” (zi) is an honorific meaning “master”, not a family name.

Sun Jian, the warlord who died around 191 AD and whose sons founded the state of Eastern Wu, was said to be a descendant of Sun Tzu. The claim cannot be checked; the family’s early history is poorly recorded.

A strategist of the fourth century BC, traditionally called Sun Tzu’s descendant, who wrote his own military treatise. It was lost for centuries until a copy was found with The Art of War at Yinqueshan in 1972.

Roughly “soon dzuh”. In pinyin the name is written Sunzi.