Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (translated as "Master Sun" in Chinese), born Sun Wu, was a Chinese philosopher and general who wrote the oldest treatise on military strategy called The Art of War.

Sun Tzu was born in the 6th century, and it is argued whether he was in fact a real figure in history. Many scholars believe that he was born in Qi, China at a time when China was fiercely divided between warring kingdoms.

He was said to have served under the king of Wu as a general, and his book on military tactics, The Art of War, has endured to the present day. Mao Zedong, George Patton, and Napoleon Bonaparte are among the leaders and generals who are rumored to have read this text and been influenced by it.

Despite being over 2500 years old, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is still quoted in speeches by present-day leaders such as US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The book continues to be read and studied in military academies around the world and is included in the US Marines' Commandant Reading List. Corporations, business schools, and sports organizations were reported to have gleaned its pages for strategic advantage.

1. Lived during the 6th Century BC
2. Wrote the classic of Chinese philosophy, The Art of War, the oldest known text on military strategy
3. A younger contemporary of Confucius
4. Was a general for hire for King He-Lu of the Wu state

• "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."—Wikiquote

• "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."—Wikiquote

• 8th to 5th Century BC: The Spring and Autumn Period creates landless aristocrats and traveling scholars

• 6th Century BC: Period of Sun Tzu's life, along with notable contemporary, Confucius

• 512 BC: King Helu of Wu hires Sun Tzu as a general

• 2nd Century BC: The first historical biography of Sun Tzu is written by Sima Qian

• 298 BC: The historian Zhuang Zi documents Sun Tzu's Bing Fa

• 1722: Jean Joseph Amiot translates Sun Tzu's work into French, the first European language translation

• 1910: Lionel Giles publishes the definitive English translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War

• 1972: An ancient set of texts engraved on bamboo are discovered and definitively dated to 134-118 BC

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