Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
Amano's Japanese translation of "Sun Tzu Wuzi", Meiji Academy, 1972
Giles' English translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War, published by Arcturus; Slp edition, 2015
English translation of Griffith's The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Oxford University Press, 1971
"Never thought I'd read a book about Chinese military in the 5th century AD... The book (The Art of War of Sun Tzu) is very short, easy to read, interesting and popular" (Lily CReads)
"This book should be read again at the secondary school level, read again at the university level, read again and again every time you change your job and lifestyle" (Tassa DeSalada)
"Not only military classics, but also historical and philosophical classics" (Fabian)
"Some very powerful and witty strategies that can be used in a variety of situations" (Saadia B. CritiConscience) ...
On GoodReads, an English-language online reading platform, tens of thousands of reader comments on Sun Tzu's Art of War cover 41 languages, which shows how widely it is spread around the world.
The Art of War of Sun Tzu is the earliest surviving military book in China and the oldest military work in the world, written by the General Sun Bing of the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period. The book is a concentrated embodiment of ancient Chinese military thought and culture, is regarded as a classic of the soldier family, the existing 13 articles, about 6,000 words, its rich dialectical ideas, not only widely disseminated, but also outside the military field has been concerned and applied. The contemporary international community has widely used the wisdom of Sun Tzu's Art of War in various aspects such as business operation, market expansion, and public relations management, and has become an important Chinese wisdom that affects the world.
The spread of Chinese editions in the world
The earliest Chinese edition of Sun Tzu's Art of War, in the library of Fudan University, is the 1556 edition of Mr. Fang Shan's Sun Tzu Saying: Two Volumes. The earliest Chinese edition in the collection of overseas libraries is Sun Tzu's Book: 3 Volumes, published in 1568 by Zhao Benxue, which is a film taken by the Library of Congress from the Peking Library (now the National Library). Zhao Benxue's "Zhao Zhu Sun Tzu Art of War" has also had a far-reaching influence overseas. In 1589, Huang Bangyan's revised Notes on Sun Tzu's Collection: 13 Volumes were also collected by the library in the form of a film of a good book.
Written by Guo Huaruo, the Art of War of Sun Tzu (People's Publishing House) published in 1957 and the Commentary on The Translation of Sun Tzu (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House) published in 1984 have had great influence overseas.
Founding Major General Tao Hanzhang's "Introduction to Sun Tzu's Art of War" was published by the People's Liberation Army Publishing House in 1985, and was translated into English by Yuan Shibin of the Chinese Mission to the United Nations: Modern Chinese Interpretation, published by stirling Company in New York in 1987, and republished in 2000 and 2007, and the edition was also translated into Spanish and Polish. In 1998, The Wordsworth Company in London published The Art of War of Sun Tzu (based on the above version and the Book of Shang), which is one of the Classics of World Literature of Wordsworth.
The classic manga "Sun Tzu Says: Sun Tzu's Art of War", created by cartoonist Cai Zhizhong in 1990, has been translated into English and Japanese and widely disseminated. In 2018, Princeton University Press published Cai Zhizhong's "Sun Tzu's Art of War", prefaced by Lawrence Friedman, one of the world's military strategic authorities, expounding the influence of Sun Tzu's Art of War on Western strategic thought.
Translated from abroad and widely disseminated
Chinese characters have been used in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and other places for a long time, so the book "Sun Tzu's Art of War" was first disseminated in the form of Chinese characters in these Chinese character cultural circles. In the 15th century, Li Chaoyizong published an annotated version of the Seven Books of the Book of Wu, including the Art of War of Sun Tzu. After the 16th century, a large number of Korean interpretations and translations of Sun Tzu's Art of War and commentaries emerged. In WorldCat, the world's largest library joint bibliographic platform, the Korean editions of "New Lectures on the Art of War", "Cao Cao's Art of War", and "Sun Tzu, Wuzi" published after 1956 all contain the content of "Sun Tzu's Art of War".
The earliest edition of the Japanese textbook Emperor Weiwu's Notes on Sun Tzu was revised by Oka Shirako in 1764 and published by Murakami Kanbei in Kyoto. The earliest edition of the Ten Notes on the Ten Houses of Sun Tzu was published between 1842 and 1853 by the Edo Masahirasaka Gakuseki, written by Sun Xingyan and Wu Renji, and included the narration of Sun Tzu and the testament of Sun Tzu. The most widely collected Japanese edition of WorldCat is "Sun Tzu Kukuko", written by Mamoru Amano and published by Meiji Academy in 1972. From 2013 to 2014, Kunihiro Yuasa, a well-known Japanese expert in bamboo research, organized the compilation and publication of a series of 14 books by Sun Tzu. In 1995, Cai Zhizhong's Thoughts on Sun Tzu Han Feizi, translated by Takeshi Wada, was published; in 2016, Miura Yoshiaki translated "Illustrating Sun Tzu: Thought and Practice" edited by Zhao Haijun.
On GoodReads, the world's largest online reading community, the British sinologist Giles translated the largest collection of Sun Tzu's Art of War, and in 1910, his "Sun Tzu's Art of War: The World's Earliest Military Works" published by the London-based Luzac Publishing Company was translated into Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Swedish, etc. The scholar Sawyer is considered one of the outstanding translators of ancient Chinese military works, and his grandson's translations of the Art of War were translated into Spanish, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. Griffiths, a U.S. Marine Corps officer, retired from the army and entered Oxford University to study, and obtained a degree in Chinese military history, and his doctoral dissertation, "Sun Tzu: The First Military Philosopher", was published by Oxford University Press in 1963 and subsequently translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, etc. The translator with the most readers at GoodReads is Cleary, who has been hailed as one of the greatest Asian classic translators of the 20th century, and his translations of Sun Tzu's Art of War have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Contemporary is applied to other fields
Around the world, Sun Tzu's art of war has also been widely used in other fields, which in turn has promoted the spread of Sun Tzu's Art of War around the world.
Gerald and Steven's books "The Marketing Strategy of Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Sun Tzu's Art of War Sales Strategy", and "Manager's Sun Tzu's Art of War" have been translated into Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese. They had both been in charge of sales at the company, and Gerald was a veteran, and his research on Sun Tzu's art of war was internationally recognized.
McNeil Mark, a commercial strategist and amateur military historian and former infantry and artillery officer, preached Sun Tzu's ideas through speeches, television, and radio, and Oxford University Press published his Art of War and the Art of Commerce: Six Strategic Principles for Managers and The Art of Modern Warfare. American Entrepreneur Magazine reviewed the first book saying: If you feel that business is like war, then this book based on ancient Chinese war will help you.
In the process of research, many foreign authors have further elaborated the ideas of Sun Tzu's Art of War, such as Zhu Jinning's "Female Sun Tzu's Art of War: The Ultimate Guide for Sun Tzu to Win Without Fighting", and Dunn Philip's "Sun Tzu's Art of War: The Art of Peace", which explains the idea of "cautious warfare" in Sun Tzu's Art of War.
From ancient times to the present, from China to the world, the Chinese wisdom condensed by Sun Tzu's Art of War is still full of vitality, and its peaceful purpose of "stopping the war and turning war into force" is the ultimate goal of human society. More than 40 language translations throughout the world, extensive and in-depth reading, so that the unique ancient Chinese wisdom and traditional classical cultural ideas bloom in the world.
(The author is an associate researcher at the library of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese)