The Complete Art of War

This book is the only single-volume edition available of the classic essays on strategy by the great Sun Tzu and his descendant, Sun Pin, translated by the world's foremost authority on ancient Chinese strategic thought. With Sawyer's thoughtful chapter-by-chapter commentaries, The Complete Art of War is designed to guide the reader to new insights into the nature of human conflict and a greater understanding of every field of human activity—from playing the game of politics to building a successful marriage, from closing a deal to managing a large organization, and even from making war to making peace.

The intent of The Complete Art of War is to provide readers with an integrated edition of the remarkable Sun family military writings—Sun-tzu’s famous analytic overview of the nature of warfare known as the Art of War and the work recently recovered from a Han dynasty tomb attributed to his direct descendant Sun Pin, also entitled the Art of War but, for convenience, best identified as Military Methods. This integrated edition differs from our previous single-volume editions (and the Art of War translation included in our Seven Military Classics translation) in unifying and expanding the chapter commentaries; appending a tactical index; revising the translations slightly to make them more accessible upon first reading; excising material of interest primarily to scholars; abridging the historical background; and deleting the tactical analysis of the various battles.