Introduction
　　Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a masterpiece on military theories compiled 2,500 years ago. It is also the world’s first work on military strategy that can be found today. It is a classical work on Chinese strategic theory and a crystallization of the strategic thinking and the art of stratagem of the Chinese people. It can be said that it is impossible to understand Chinese strategic culture and military tradition without knowing Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
　　The Art of War is written by Sun Wu who is regarded as “Sun Tzu” by the later generations. As a contemporary of the famous thinker Confucius,Sun Tzu lived in the 6th century BC during the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China. He was born into the noble family of Tian in the major Zhou Dynasty State of Qi lying in the east of the North China Plain.In the late Spring and Autumn period, China underwent profound social reform. The state of Qi was in a state of political upheaval. Major families including the family of Tian were in fierce political struggle. Civil strife was frequent. To avoid getting involved in the disputes, Sun Tzu trekked thousands of miles to the state of Wu in Yangtze River valley in Southern China. Although a small state in the south of the Yangtze River, Wu was on the upswing with full of vitality. King Helv of Wu forged ahead with determination and exerted himself to make the state prosperous. He sought out able men and received them with courteous reception and tried to emerge as a hegemon.Sun Tzu believed that the state of Wu was just the place where he could perform exploits and realize his ambitions.
　　Soon after arriving in Wu, Sun Tzu presented his 13 chapters of The Art of War to King Helv around 512 BC. Greatly appreciating this military work, the latter summoned Sun Tzu to the court and tested his competence face-to-face. In the Records of the Grand Historian , the great historian of Han Dynasty Sima Qian vividly described the stories after Sun Tzu entered the court of Wu.
　　Unfortunately, there are only fragmented written records about this legendary figure of Sun Tzu. Luckily, history left us with a complete book of The Art of War . Written in about 6,000 words, it is composed of 13 chapters. With respective themes, each chapter is independent. Meanwhile, there are certain internal logic relations among these chapters which together form the author’s profound military theory. Generally speaking, Chapter One to Chapter Three discussed the issue of overall war plan and strategic guide. In Chapter Four to Six, Sun Tzu proposed a series of strategic views and basic principles. Chapter Seven to Twelve discussed various kinds of issues the troops may encounter in the battlefields and the methods of disposal. Chapter Thirteen elaborated on Sun Tzu’s thoughts on using spies to acquire intelligence.
　　An overview of the theoretical system of The Art of War reveals that its structure and contents cover the whole process of the war from the macro policy to the micro implementation, from the abstract to the concrete. It covers from preparations for war and decision-making to waging wars as well as treatment of postwar issues. The
　　author’s discussions were ingenious and penetrating. He put forward unique ideas in elegant and terse language. The profound wisdom and philosophy contained in the
　　book incisively reveal the nature of ancient wars and the basic principles of commanding wars. It is still an enormous inspiration to modern warfare and can be
　　called the classic masterpiece of military thought andstrategic theory. Compared to western classical works on military theory such as Vom Kriege (On War) by Carl
　　Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu put forward a distinctive understanding and perception of certain issues in the war. For instance, with respect to target strike,
　　western classical military works attach great importance to win by annihilating the enemy’s military strength. But Sun Tzu stressed that it is better to force the enemy
　　to surrender and achieve tactical purposes by attacking its political, diplomatic and psychological factors . With respect to combat means, western classical military works
　　propose to solve problems by direct violence while Sun Tzu promoted to use nonviolent means such as political, diplomatic and strategic means. With respect to striking
　　methods and strategies, western classical military works borrowed from a principle of physics and emphasized “focus” to “focus” which means to attack with the strongest
　　and most concentrated firing point on the enemy’s strong points and to win victory with large-scale decisive wars. In contrast, Sun Tzu, inspired by the natural course of water that runs away from high places and hastens downwards, thought it is wiser to circumvent the mighty and strike the weak in time and space. All these contrasts embody the
　　differences between oriental and western strategic cultures.
　　Forming the basic framework and ideas of Chinese traditional military thoughts, The Art of War exerted great influence on Chinese militarists and military works.Such influence also went beyond Chinese border and spread to other countries. Around 7th century, The Art of War was spread to Korea and Japan by diplomatic envoys and foreign students and held in high esteem there. In 1772, the French Jesuit missionary and famous Sinologist Jean Joseph Marie Amiot translated The Art of War and two other books on Chinese art of war into French and named it les sciences et les arts des Chinois . With its publication in Paris, The Art of War was introduced to the western world. Up to now, this book has been translated into over 20 languages including Korean, Japanese, Thai, Burmese, Malay, French, English, Russian, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Czech, Greek, Spanish, Romanian, Armenian, Arabic, and Hebrew. It has become a common treasure house and cultural heritage of all mankind. During the peacetime since mid 20th century, The Art of War has always been favored by people from political, industrial, diplomatic and sports circles. Some world famous universities and colleges even use it as a required book. Many important figures have benefited from this book and gained insights into strategic thoughts and the art of strategy.
　　In order for Chinese and foreign readers to enhance their understanding on The Art of War and traditional Chinese strategic culture, we compiled this book. With illustrations, we combined vivid examples of foreign and Chinese wars in both ancient and modern times together and tried to make an accurate and profound interpretation on the original text of The Art of War and Sun Tzu’s thoughts. The original text of this book is the most famous edition of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War with annotations of Eleven Masters in Song Dynasty. The members of our compiling committee are all senior scholars from the Chinese Research Association of The Art of War.