China

Art of War

Sunzi Bingfa

The greatest victory is the war never fought, because an army that wins through deception, positioning, and intelligence has already achieved its aim before a single battle begins.

A concise military treatise organized into thirteen chapters covering strategy, deception, terrain, and the use of intelligence, traditionally attributed to the general Sun Tzu in service of the state of Wu. Its central claim is that supreme skill in warfare lies in subduing an enemy without fighting at all, through superior planning, timing, and knowledge of both oneself and one's opponent.

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Fed into

  • Wuzi · c. 400-300 BC (compilation; traditional attribution to Wu Qi, d. 381 BC, is contested)
  • Liutao · c. 400-250 BC (compilation; traditional attribution to the Zhou-founding strategist Jiang Ziya is legendary)
  • Sun Bin's Art of War · c. 350-300 BC (lost after the Han dynasty; rediscovered in 1972 among the Yinqueshan Han tomb bamboo slips)
  • Wei Liaozi · c. 350-220 BC (authorship and precise date contested)
  • Wu Yue Chunqiu · c. AD 50-100

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