Sun Zi (Sun Tzu) (ca. fourth century BCE)

Abstract

Abstract Sun Zi is the name of the purported author of The Art of Warfare , a classic Chinese text from the Warring States Era (476–221 BCE ). Historical information about Sun Zi (“Master Sun,” whose given name is Wu according to the tradition about him) is scarce enough that many scholars doubt that such a person really existed, especially as early as the Spring and Autumn period (722–476 BCE ) to which the tradition ascribes his life: he is supposed to have been a general serving under the king of the state of Wu around 500 BCE . But details of style, anachronisms in content, and the later existence of a thriving genre of military treatises more fully revealed by recent archaeological discoveries make a date of composition in the 300s BCE much more likely. And “compilation” may be more accurate than “composition,” even for the core text and certainly for the heavily annotated full text that is known to history. Whatever the details about its authorship, there is no question as to the historical significance and influence of the Art of Warfare , or the Sunzi , as it is sometimes called.