Art_of_War

The Art of War — Sun Tzu

Sūnzǐ Bīngfǎ. Translated by Lionel Giles, 1910 (public domain).

Giles’s translation remains the standard English version for a century. For modern readers, Samuel B. Griffith (1963) and Ralph D. Sawyer (1993) are preferred scholarly editions — both copyrighted.

Chapters

• Chapter I — Laying Plans
• Chapter II — Waging War
• Chapter III — Attack By Stratagem
• Chapter IV — Tactical Dispositions
• Chapter V — Energy
• Chapter VI — Weak Points And Strong
• Chapter VII — Manœuvering
• Chapter VIII — Variation Of Tactics
• Chapter IX — The Army On The March
• Chapter X — Terrain
• Chapter XI — The Nine Situations
• Chapter XII — The Attack By Fire
• Chapter XIII — The Use Of Spies

Core Themes

• Victory through calculation, not heroics
• Deception as the fundamental operational mode
• Terrain classification (nine grounds, six positions)
• Spies as the highest-leverage investment
• Breaking the enemy’s will without battle (“supreme excellence”)

Cross-References

• Clausewitz — On War (contrast: Clausewitz’s central blow vs. Sun Tzu’s indirect approach)
• Jomini — The Art of War