Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Complete Texts and Commentaries) (Translated by Thomas Cleary)

Summary Information:

Edition: Paperback

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Page Count: 457

Notes:

This particular book was actually the full translation and commentary of 5 books in one: Sun Tzu’s Original Art of War, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji’s Art of War commentary Mastering the Art of War, Sun Bin’s The Lost Art of War, and the newly recovered Silver Sparrow Art of War. If nothing else, reading each version and its associated commentary helped instill the original version to memory through repetition. What struck me throughout the work, as well as the millennia of commentary and debate surrounding it, is how deeply psychological and sociological the book is. It is essentially a study of human nature; how humans react when under stress, how humans react in groups, how humans react in certain physical settings, how fear works, how pride works, and much else. Of course, this is at the foundation of statecraft and peacebuilding, but the degree to which core assumptions of human nature are relied upon was still surprising to me. Cleary’s translation and compilation was, as expected, excellent, and it was a pleasure to read.