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58-401: In Sun Tzu 's The Art of War , military leaders are advised to take high ground and let the enemy try to attack from a lower position. Fighting from an elevated position is said to be easier for a number of tactical reasons. Holding the high ground offers an elevated vantage point with a wide field of view , enabling surveillance of the surrounding landscape, in contrast to valleys which offer

116-440: A collection of ancient texts written on unusually well-preserved bamboo slips . Among them were The Art of War and Sun Bin 's Military Methods . Although Han dynasty bibliographies noted the latter publication as extant and written by a descendant of Sun, it had previously been lost. The rediscovery of Sun Bin's work is regarded as extremely important by scholars, both because of Sun Bin's relationship to Sun Tzu and because of

174-503: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

232-596: A crucial role in the outcome of the battle. However, getting the high ground is not always advantageous. In the Battle of Jieting of the Three Kingdoms period of China , Shu Han forces occupied a hilltop, which Cao Wei forces soon surrounded and isolated the Shu forces from water supplies and reinforcements. The Shu forces suffered a humiliating defeat, and the Shu northern expedition had to be aborted. If people claim to have

290-552: A direct relationship between their modern struggles and those of China in Sun Tzu's time. There is a great perceived value in Sun Tzu's teachings and other traditional Chinese writers, which are used regularly in developing the strategies of the Chinese state and its leaders. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,

348-404: A limited field of view. General Ji Ling of the late Eastern Han dynasty used this principle to his advantage by sending lookouts to positions of higher-ground to scout for and provide early warning about enemy troops. Additionally, soldiers fighting uphill are assumed to tire more quickly and will move more slowly, when compared to soldiers fighting downhill, who do not have to struggle against

406-455: A metaphor for rhetoric, and that both are philosophically based arts." Combs writes: "Warfare is analogous to persuasion, as a battle for hearts and minds." Combs compares Taoist and Aristotelian rhetoric, notably for the differences in persuasion. Daoist rhetoric in The Art of War warfare strategies is described as "peaceful and passive, favoring silence over speech". This form of communication

464-551: A minister to King Helü of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544–496 BC. Modern scholars accepting his historicity place the extant text of The Art of War in the later Warring States period of 475 to 221 BC, based on its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare. Traditional accounts state that the general's descendant Sun Bin wrote a treatise on military tactics, also titled The Art of War . Since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as "Sun Tzu" in classical Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical, prior to

522-510: A small school of disciples, which eventually included Sun Bin. These descendants or students may have revised or expanded upon certain points in the original text. Skeptics who identify issues with the traditionalist view point to possible anachronisms in The Art of War including terms, technology (such as anachronistic crossbows ), philosophical ideas, events, and military techniques that should not have been available to Sun Wu. Additionally, there are no records of professional generals during

580-649: Is parsimonious . Parsimonious behavior, which is highly emphasized in The Art of War as avoiding confrontation and being spiritual in nature, shapes basic principles in Taoism. In Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare , Mark McNeilly writes that a modern interpretation of Sun and his importance throughout Chinese history is critical in understanding China's push to become a superpower in the twenty-first century. Modern Chinese scholars explicitly rely on historical strategic lessons and The Art of War in developing their theories, seeing

638-850: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

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696-411: Is accepted as a masterpiece on strategy and has been frequently cited and referred to by generals and theorists since it was first published, translated, and distributed internationally. There are numerous theories concerning when the text was completed and concerning the identity of the author or authors, but archeological recoveries show The Art of War had taken roughly its current form by at least

754-521: Is very likely Sun Tzu did exist and not only served as a general, but also wrote the core of the book that bears his name. It is argued that there is a disparity between the large-scale wars and sophisticated techniques detailed in the text and the more primitive small-scale battles that many believe predominated in China during the 6th century BC. Against this, Sawyer argues that the teachings of Sun Wu were probably taught to succeeding generations in his family or

812-483: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

870-455: The East Asian context . The meanings of such statements are clearer when interpreted in the context of Taoist thought and practice. Despite its title, The Art of War addresses strategy in a broad fashion, touching upon public administration and planning. The text outlines theories of battle, but also advocates diplomacy and the cultivation of relationships with other nations as essential to

928-514: The Russo-Japanese War , was an avid reader of Sun Tzu. Ho Chi Minh translated the work for his Vietnamese officers to study. His general Võ Nguyên Giáp was likewise an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu's ideas. Taoist rhetoric is a component incorporated in the Art of War . According to Steven C. Combs in "Sun-zi and the Art of War : The Rhetoric of Parsimony", warfare is "used as

986-622: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

1044-634: The Spring and Autumn period ; these are only extant from the Warring States period , so there is doubt as to Sun Tzu's rank and generalship. This caused much confusion as to when The Art of War was actually written. The first traditional view is that it was written in 512 BC by the historical Sun Wu, active in the last years of the Spring and Autumn period ( c.  722 –481 BC). A second view, held by scholars such as Samuel Griffith, places The Art of War during

1102-444: The " moral high ground ", that means that they consider themself morally superior to others. This idiom may be reflective of a broader concept in which morality is viewed metaphorically as "high" and immorality is viewed as "low". Sun Tzu Sun Tzu ( / s uː n ˈ d z uː , s uː n ˈ s uː / soon DZOO , soon SOO ; traditional Chinese : 孫子 ; simplified Chinese : 孙子 ; pinyin : Sūnzǐ )

1160-547: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

1218-521: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

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1276-598: The battlefield that his theories were effective (for example, at the Battle of Boju ), that he had a successful military career, and that he wrote The Art of War based on his tested expertise. However, the Zuozhuan , a historical text written centuries earlier than the Shiji , provides a much more detailed account of the Battle of Boju, but does not mention Sun Tzu at all. Around the 12th century AD, some Chinese scholars began to doubt

1334-532: The book invaluable in ending the time of the Warring States . In the twentieth century, Mao Zedong partially credited his 1949 victory over Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang to The Art of War . The work strongly influenced writings about warfare in Mao's Little Red Book , which further influenced communist insurgencies around the world. The Art of War was introduced into Nara Japan in c.  AD 760 and

1392-610: The book quickly became popular among Japanese military generals. Through its later influence on the Sengoku period "Great Unifiers" of Japan, Oda Nobunaga , Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and Tokugawa Ieyasu , it significantly affected the unification of Japan in the early modern era. After the Meiji Restoration , it remained popular among the Imperial Japanese armed forces . Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō , who led Japan's forces to victory in

1450-445: The book was required reading to pass the tests for imperial appointment to military positions. Sun Tzu's The Art of War uses language that may be unusual in a Western text on warfare and strategy. For example, the eleventh chapter states that a leader must be "serene and inscrutable" and capable of comprehending "unfathomable plans". The text contains many similar remarks that have long confused Western readers lacking an awareness of

1508-427: The company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled. In response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated the command, and again the concubines giggled. Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the king's two favored concubines, to the king's protests. He explained that if

1566-535: The defense of the mountains, was able to win the war for the mujahideen. High ground was also employed in the 1423 Battle of Horic in Bohemia , where Taborite soldiers took to high ground, forcing the Utraquist cavalry to dismount to attack them, and also rendering their cannons ineffective. Taborite soldiers were eventually able to make a downhill charge and wipe out the remaining Utraquists. Here again, high ground played

1624-450: The early Han period. Because it is impossible to prove definitively when the Art of War was completed before this date, the differing theories concerning the work's author or authors and date of completion are unlikely to be completely resolved. Some modern scholars believe that it contains not only the thoughts of its original author but also commentary and clarifications from later military theorists, such as Li Quan and Du Mu . Of

1682-463: The enemy should begin only after the enemy has no opportunity to either defend or counterattack. It was used in the wars in the era of the Warring States in ancient China (about 475–221 BC). Those combat combinations had specific names, descriptions and classifications. Sun Tzu's historicity is uncertain. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian and other traditional Chinese historians placed him as

1740-430: The forces of gravity alongside natural obstacles in the terrain. Furthermore, soldiers who are elevated above their enemies can get greater range out of low-speed projectiles (such as rocks, javelins/spears, arrows, grenades, etc.), whereas low-speed projectiles have a shorter range when thrown uphill. Very steep and/or rocky terrain, like mountain sides, can be an obstacle to tanks and armored personnel carriers , or in

1798-466: The general's soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, it was the fault of the officers. Sun Tzu also said that, once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Afterward, both companies, now well aware of the costs of further frivolity, performed their maneuvers flawlessly. Sima Qian claimed that Sun Tzu later proved on

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1856-561: The health of a state. As such, the book has also become popular among political leaders and those in business management . For example, in the 1987 film Wall Street , the protagonist Gordon Gekko frequently cites passages from The Art of War as guiding principles for his aggressive trading techniques. On 10 April 1972, the Yinqueshan Han Tombs were accidentally unearthed by construction workers in Shandong . Scholars uncovered

1914-551: The historical existence of Sun Tzu, primarily on the grounds that he is not mentioned in the historical classic Zuo Zhuan , which mentions most of the notable figures from the Spring and Autumn period. The name "Sun Wu" ( 孫武 ) does not appear in any text prior to the Records of the Grand Historian , and may have been a made-up descriptive cognomen meaning "the fugitive warrior" – the surname "Sun" can be glossed as

1972-514: The inspiration for the creation of the historical figure "Sun Tzu" through a form of euhemerism . The name Sun Wu does appear in later sources such as the Shiji and the Wu Yue Chunqiu , but were written centuries after Sun Tzu's era. The use of the strips in other works, however, such as The Methods of the Sima is considered proof of Sun Tzu's historical priority. According to Ralph Sawyer, it

2030-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

2088-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

2146-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

2204-975: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

2262-410: The middle to late Warring States period ( c.  481 –221 BC). Finally, a third school claims that the slips were published in the last half of the 5th century BC; this is based on how its adherents interpret the bamboo slips discovered at Yinque Shan in 1972. The Art of War is traditionally ascribed to Sun Tzu. It presents a philosophy of war for managing conflicts and winning battles. It

2320-527: The military texts written before the unification of China and Shi Huangdi 's subsequent book burning in the second century BC, six major works have survived. During the much later Song dynasty , these six works were combined with a Tang text into a collection called the Seven Military Classics . As a central part of that compilation, The Art of War formed the foundations of orthodox military theory in early modern China. Illustrating this point,

2378-474: The modern world beyond military strategy and warfare, including espionage, culture, governance, business, and sports. The oldest available sources disagree as to where Sun Tzu was born. The Spring and Autumn Annals and Sima Qian 's later Records of the Grand Historian ( Shiji ) state that Sun Tzu was born in Qi . Both sources also agree that Sun Tzu was born in the late Spring and Autumn period and that he

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2436-665: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

2494-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

2552-635: The past to cavalry and war elephants . For example, in the Soviet–Afghan War , mujahideen guerrillas based themselves in the mountains of Afghanistan , thereby protecting themselves from the Soviet motorized divisions. This forced the Soviets to rely heavily on helicopters to conduct the war, but the United States gave the mujahideen FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which, arguably, combined with

2610-825: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

2668-448: The rediscovery of Sun Bin's treatise in 1972. Sun Tzu's work has been praised and employed throughout the arc of East Asian military history since its composition, and eventually earned global attention. During the twentieth century, The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in the Western world as well. It remains influential in many contemporary competitive endeavors across

2726-400: The related term "fugitive" ( xùn 遜 ), while "Wu" is the ancient Chinese virtue of "martial, valiant" ( wǔ 武 ), which corresponds to Sun Tzu's role as the hero's doppelgänger in the story of Wu Zixu . The only historical battle attributed to Sun Tzu, the Battle of Boju , has no record of him fighting in that battle. Skeptics cite possible historical inaccuracies and anachronisms in

2784-509: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of

2842-450: The text, and that the book was actually a compilation from different authors and military strategists. Attribution of the authorship of The Art of War varies among scholars and has included people and movements including Sun; Chu scholar Wu Zixu ; an anonymous author; a school of theorists in Qi or Wu ; Sun Bin ; and others. Sun Bin appears to have been an actual person who was a genuine authority on military matters, and may have been

2900-627: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

2958-970: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

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3016-509: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

3074-509: The vast expanse of fertile territory in Eastern China. One of the better-known stories about Sun Tzu, taken from Sima Qian, illustrates Sun Tzu's temperament as follows: Before hiring Sun Tzu, the King of Wu tested Sun Tzu's skills by commanding him to train a harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as

3132-571: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

3190-573: The work's addition to the body of military thought in Chinese late antiquity. The discovery as a whole significantly expanded the body of surviving Warring States military theory. Sun Bin's treatise is the only known military text surviving from the Warring States period discovered in the twentieth century and bears the closest similarity to The Art of War of all surviving texts. Sun Tzu's Art of War has influenced many notable figures. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian recounted that China's first historical emperor , Qin 's Shi Huangdi , considered

3248-423: Was Sun Wu ( traditional Chinese : 孫武 ; simplified Chinese : 孙武 ) and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing ( Chinese : 長卿 ). The name Sun Tzu —by which he is more popularly known—is an honorific which means "Master Sun ". Sun Tzu mastered the military science of ancient China and created the military doctrine of asymmetrical warfare. According to it, an attack on

3306-547: Was a Chinese military general , strategist , philosopher , and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC). Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War , an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thought. Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure. His birth name

3364-427: Was active as a general and strategist, serving King Helü of Wu in the sixth century BC, beginning around 512 BC. Sun Tzu's victories then inspired him to write The Art of War . The Art of War was one of the most widely read military treatises in the subsequent Warring States period , a time of constant war among seven ancient Chinese states— Zhao , Qi , Qin , Chu , Han , Wei , and Yan —who fought to control

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