Sun-tszy

Sun Tzu (birth name Sun Wu, courtesy name Zhangqing) was an ancient Chinese strategist and thinker, the author of the famous treatise on military strategy, The Art of War, who lived around the 4th century BCE. Sun Tzu’s overall ideology combines Confucian principles of maintaining social homeostasis with the Daoist dialectic of the universal Dao, the cosmic cyclicism of the Yin-Yang school, Legalist “political science,” and the managerial pragmatism of the Mohists.

Biographical information about him is given by Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian. Sun Tzu served as a mercenary commander to Prince Helü in the state of Wu. Commanding the troops, he defeated the powerful state of Chu, capturing its capital, the city of Ying, and also inflicted defeats on the states of Qi and Jin. Thanks to his victories, the state of Wu came to be counted among the states of civilized China headed by the monarchs of the Zhou dynasty. Helü himself was included among the “zhuhou” — the officially recognized rulers of independent domains. At the end of his life, Sun Tzu wrote, at the prince’s request, a treatise on the art of war, traditionally called The Art of War. He then returned to his native state of Qi, where he soon died. Centuries later, members of the Sun clan who lived in the era of the Three Kingdoms (Sun Jian, Sun Ce, Sun Quan) claimed descent from him.

Sun Tzu considered war a necessary evil that should be avoided whenever possible: “War is like fire; those who do not lay down their arms will perish by their own arms.” War should be waged quickly to avoid economic losses: “No long war has ever benefited a country: 100 victories in 100 battles are simply ridiculous. Anyone who distinguished himself by crushing the enemy had already won before the enemy threat became real.” Slaughter and atrocities should be avoided, because they may provoke resistance and give the enemy an opportunity to turn the war to its own advantage.

Sun Tzu’s ideas are summarized in 5 principles: — “the Way” (the unanimity of the people and