The Art of War by Sun Tzu pdf book download

Book: The Art of War
Author: Sun Tzu
Translator: Lionel Giles
Release Date: May 1994 
Last updated: September 15, 2019
Language: English.

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Translated from the Chinese with Introduction and Critical Notes by Lionel Giles, M.A.
🔍In This Book________________________
CHUAN, adding that there were two other CHUAN besides. This has brought forth a theory, that the bulk of these 82 chapters consisted of other writings of Sun Tzu — we should call them apocryphal — similar to the WEN TA, of which a specimen dealing with the Nine Situations [15] is preserved in the T`UNG TIEN, and another in Ho Shin’s commentary. It is suggested that before his interview with Ho Lu, Sun Tzu had only written the 13 chapters, but afterwards composed a sort of exegesis in the form of question and answer between himself and the King. Pi I-hsun, the author of the SUN 
TZU HSU LU, backs this up with a quotation from the WU YUEH CH`UN CH`IU: “The King of Wu summoned Sun Tzu, and asked him questions about the art of war. Each time he set forth a chapter of his work, the King could not find words enough to praise him.” As he points out, if the whole work was expounded on the same scale as in the above- mentioned fragments, the total number of chapters could not fail to be considerable. Then the numero.
The Text of Sun Tzu
I have found it difficult to glean much about the history of Sun
Tzu’s text. 
The quotations that occur in early authors go to show that
the “13 chapters” of which Ssu-ma Ch’ien speaks were essentially the
same as those now extant. We have his word for it that they were
widely circulated in his day, and can only regret that he refrained from
discussing them on that account. Sun Hsing-yen says in his preface:—
During the Ch’in and Han dynasties Sun Tzu’s Art of War was in general use
amongst military commanders, but they seem to have treated it as a work of
mysterious import, and were unwilling to expound it for the benefit of posterity.
Thus it came about that Wei Wu was the first to write a commentary on it.
As we have already seen, there is no reasonable ground to suppose
that Ts’ao Kung tampered with the text. But the text itself is often so
obscure, and the number of editions which appeared from that time
onward so great, especially during the T’ang and Sung dynasties, that
it would be surprising if numerous corruptions had not managed to
creep in. Towards the middle of the Sung period, by which time all the
chief commentaries on Sun Tzu were in existence, a certain Chi T’ien-
pao published a work in 15 chuan entitled “Sun Tzu with the collected
commentaries of ten writers.” There was another text, with variant
readings put forward by Chu Fu of Ta-hsing, which also had
supporters among the scholars of that period; but in the Ming editions,
Sun Hsing-yen tells us, these readings were for some reason or other
no longer put into circulation. Thus, until the end of the 18th century,
the text in sole possession of the field was one derived from Chi
T’ien-pao’s edition, although no actual copy of that important work
was known to have survived. That, therefore, is the text of Sun Tzu.
which appears in the War section of the great Imperial encyclopedia
printed in 1726, the Ku Chin T’u Shu Chi Ch’eng. Another copy at my
disposal of what is practically the same text, with slight variations, is
that contained in the “Eleven philosophers of the Chou and Ch’in
dynasties” [1758]. And the Chinese printed in Capt. Calthrop’s first
edition is evidently a similar version which has filtered through
Japanese channels. So things remained until Sun Hsing-yen [1752-
1818], a distinguished antiquarian and classical scholar, who claimed
to be an actual descendant of Sun Wu, [36] accidentally discovered a
copy of Chi T’ien-pao’s long-lost work, when on a visit to the library
of the Hua-yin temple. [37] Appended to it was the I Shuo of Cheng
Yu-Hsien, mentioned in the T’ung Chih, and also believed to have
perished. 
This is what Sun Hsing-yen designates as the “original
edition (or text)”—a rather misleading name, for it cannot by any
means claim to set before us the text of Sun Tzu in its pristine purity.
Chi T’ien-pao was a careless compiler, and appears to have been
content to reproduce the somewhat debased version current in his day,
without troubling to collate it with the earliest editions then available.
Fortunately, two versions of Sun Tzu, even older than the newly
discovered work, were still extant, one buried in the T’ung Tien, Tu
Yu’s great treatise on the Constitution, the other similarly enshrined in
the T’ai P’ing Yu Lan encyclopedia. In both the complete text is to be
found, though split up into fragments, intermixed with other matter,
and scattered piecemeal over a number of different sections.
Considering that the Yu Lan takes us back to the year 983, and the
T’ung Tien about 200 years further still, to the middle of the T’ang
dynasty, the value of these early transcripts of Sun Tzu can hardly be
overestimated. Yet the idea of utilizing them does not seem to have
occurred to anyone until Sun Hsing-yen, acting under Government
instructions, undertook a thorough recension of the text. This is his
own account:—
Because of the numerous mistakes in the text of Sun Tzu which his editors
had handed down, the Government ordered that the ancient edition [of Chi
T’ien-pao] should be used, and that the text should be revised and corrected
throughout. It happened that Wu Nien-hu, the Governor Pi Kua, and Hsi, a
graduate of the second degree, had all devoted themselves to this study, probably
surpassing me therein. Accordingly, I have had the whole work cut on blocks as
a textbook for military men.
The three individuals here referred to had evidently been occupied
on the text of Sun Tzu prior to Sun Hsing-yen’s commission, but we
are left in doubt as to the work they really accomplished. At any rate,
the new edition, when ultimately produced, appeared in the names of
Sun Hsing-yen and only one co-editor Wu Jen-shi. They took the
“original edition” as their basis, and by careful comparison with older
versions, as well as the extant commentaries and other sources of
information such as the I Shuo, succeeded in restoring a very large
number of doubtful passages, and turned out, on the whole, what must
be accepted as the closest approximation we are ever likely to get to
Sun Tzu’s original work. This is what will hereafter be denominated
the “standard text.”
The copy which I have used belongs to a reissue dated 1877. It is in
6 pen, forming part of a well-printed set of 23 early philosophical
works in 83 pen. [38] It opens with a preface by Sun Hsing-yen
(largely quoted in this introduction), vindicating the traditional view
of Sun Tzu’s life and performances, and summing up in remarkably
concise fashion the evidence in its favor. This is followed by Ts’ao
Kung’s preface to his edition, and the biography of Sun Tzu from the
Shih Chi, both translated above. Then come, firstly, Cheng Yu-hsien’s
I Shuo, [39] with author’s preface, and next, a short miscellany of
historical and bibliographical information 
entitled Sun Tzu Hsu Lu,
compiled by Pi I-hsun. As regards the body of the work, each separate
sentence is followed by a note on the text, if required, and then by the
various commentaries appertaining to it, arranged in chronological
order. These we shall now proceed to discuss briefly, one by one.

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