The Art of War Review "In a number of places I have seen the version of The Art of War by Lionel Giles highly rated. And there is a new special edition on the market which is this translation in two parts. The first part is straight translation without commentary..." --Sifu Andrew Barnett, Chief Instructor, Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland<br \><br \>"Giles translation is the canon." --Abu Kedem, translator of the Denma Group version of The Art of War by Sun Tzu into English"A generally accepted good translation of The Art of War is from Lionel Giles." --Liat Liam Lim, Translated and Teaching Sun Zi's Art of War"The Art of War makes immediately relevant one of the greatest Chinese classical texts. There's not a dated maxim or vague prescription in it. 'To win without fighting is best,' Sun Tzu said. For him, war was coeval with life. Absorb this book, and you can throw out all those contemporary books about management leadership." --Newsweek  About the Author Sun Tzu is known as a Chinese military strategist, Taoist philosopher, and general in the 6th century BCE who is widely recognized for his work The Art of War, a treatise on military strategy (also known as The Thirteen Chapters). Whether an individual by the name of `Sun-Tzu existed at all has been disputed (in the same way scholars and historians debate the existence of an actual man named Lao-Tzu) but the existence of The Art of War and its profound influence on military campaigns, clearly proves that someone existed to produce said work and that the work is attributed to one Sun-Tau.  Warfare in China was considered a kind of sport of the noble gentry in which chivalry prevailed and rules were not to be bent or broken. Prior to Boju (and for many years following) these rules were observed by the noble generals who led the armies of the various states of China.  Sun-Tzu changed the rules by applying Taoist principles to warfare and by refusing to consider war a sport. He wrote, In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril (2.19-20). Sun-Tzu had no patience with the protracted games generals seemed to enjoy playing with each other. Once hostilities had erupted, one s priority was to defeat the enemy, not indulge oneself in chivalry which could only prolong the conflict and cost more lives.  Sun-Tzu s The Art of War has been used effectively in military engagements from The Warring States Period to (intermittently) the present day and is considered a classic philosophical work on military strategy. Sun-Tzu s dictum that, All warfare is based on deception (1.18) has been cited as an essential component of any military campaign and, as his work has grown in popularity through many different translations, has also been made use of by the business community in their pursuit of success in commerce. -J.J. Marks