Mastering the Art of War (Shambhala Dragon Editions) [Paperback]

Zhuge Liang (Author), Liu Ji (Author), Thomas Cleary (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 1989 | Series: Shambhala Dragon Editions

Composed by two prominent statesmen-generals of classical China, this book develops the strategies of Sun Tzu's classic, The Art of War, into a complete handbook of organization and leadership. The great leaders of ancient China who were trained in Sun Tzu's principles understood how war is waged successfully, both materially and mentally, and how victory and defeat follow clear social, psychological, and environmental laws. Drawing on episodes from the panorama of Chinese history, Mastering the Art of War presents practical summaries of these essential laws along with tales of conflict and strategy that show in concrete terms the proper use of Sun Tzu's principles. The book also examines the social and psychological aspects of organization and crisis management. The translator's introduction surveys the Chinese philosophies of war and conflict and explores in depth the parallels between The Art of War and the oldest handbook of strategic living, the I Ching (Book of Changes).

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

From the Inside Flap

This book develops the strategies of THE ART OF WAR into a handbook of organization and leadership.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (November 18, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877735131
• ISBN-13: 978-0877735137
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #395,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very general, like a book of proverbs., January 12, 2005

By 

D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mastering the Art of War (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

Let me first clarify the confusion over Sun Wu ("Sun Tzu")'s The Art of War and this book.

This is not a translation of the book The Art of War as it is known by the Western world. Sun Wu, a strategist from hundreds of years before Zhuge Liang, is indeed the father of Chinese military strategy, but culturally Zhuge Liang has acquired an even higher stature. A master strategist in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang was dubbed "The Hidden Dragon", one of the two greatest strategists of the time, alongside his colleague Pang Tong ("The Young Phoenix"). Zhuge Liang almost single-handedly turned the wandering warlord Liu Bei, "whose army did not exceed a thousand", into one of the three superpowers during the Chinese civil wars of the Three Kingdoms. Zhuge Liang's reputation for manipulating the enemy was so great that he eventually became known as a sorceror figure who was able to summon weather and conjure spirits to do his bidding. For the record -- Zhuge Liang, philosophically, belonged to the "ru jia", or "confucianism", and *not* taoism or legalism, though often his methodology and concepts show similarities to the latter two. Zhuge Liang belongs in a tradition of "ru zhang", or "confucian generals", military leaders who were learned and studied, skilled in literature and philosophy, yet actively led military campaigns.

His influence has permeated Chinese culture -- in Chinese language, the name "Zhuge Liang" is now used (and not archaically) as a symbol of preternatural intelligence, while if you used "Sun Tzu" in your everyday language, you'd be considered pretentious.

Finally, the very title "The Art of War" has always been misleading. The Chinese term "bing fa" means more along the lines of "the methodology of war", and the use of this term often does *not* refer to the specific title of Sun Wu's treatise; the words "bing fa" are often used in the way you'd use the words "geography", "physics", or "agriculture". The translation "The Art of War" probably puts Sun Wu's original work more in the realm of philosophy than was ever intended -- imagine if a book entitled "Geographical Studies" were translated as "The Art of the Earth".

This particular book is *not* a translation of Sun Wu's "bing fa". It does not pretend to be one: The cover explicitly says that it is "Zhuge Liang's and Liu Ji's commentaries on the classic by Sun Tzu". So those who complain that this is a poor translation of Sun Wu's book need to have their eyesight checked.

That said, I still have major issues with this book.

I've never had the chance to read any of Zhuge Liang's original writings on warfare. Fictitious accounts of his life as related in Romance of the Three Kingdoms mention books that he'd passed onto his military successor Jiang Wei, but I had never found these in the original Chinese language. Thomas Cleary's translated passages in this book read as extremely dry, and far too general. Most of the concepts amount to "Be kind to your men, be smart in dealing with your enemies, don't fight unless victory is sure". All true, of course, but how useful is that? Occasionally interesting angles emerge ("to know an officer, get them drunk to observe their nature"; "a decadence in a general - to assess others without assessing oneself"), but all in all, these translated passages read like proverbs, with broadly defined terms. Not having read the original Chinese text, I don't know whether the problem stems from the original works by Zhuge Liang or from Mr. Cleary's translations, but I do know that the Chinese language, especially passages of discourse, are highly difficult to translate and often come across as broad and imprecise when put into another language. There are so many Chinese words without properly English equivalents (for example "Xiao", which combines filial obedience with love, and "Yi", which means far more than just "honour" or "loyalty" could convey) that Chinese-English translation is always a tricky business.

However, in moving to the second half, the "Liu Ji" section, I find major flaws in Mr. Cleary's work. The right-hand man of Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuan Zhang, Liu Ji was another strategist who had acquired near-mystical status; under his familiar name "Liu Ba Wen", Liu Ji is known as a fortune-teller figure who saves Zhu by reading omens and stars. He's not exactly known for military strategy in the same way as Sun Wu or Zhuge Liang, but once I'd figured out who he was, I was quite eager to read the translation.

Much like the approach of Meng Zi ("Mencius"), Liu Ji uses examples and stories to illustrate his points -- which makes his points a livelier read. Unfortunately, here Mr. Cleary's translations are often awkward, bogged down by names and geography. This book was smart in including a timeline of dynasties and Chinese historical periods referred to in Liu Ji's tales, but probably should have included maps from various periods. Many of the warlord states and territories over Chinese history share the same phonetic translation ("Jin", "Han", "Wei", and "Wu" all have multiple, disparate representatives throughout Chinese history), and Mr. Cleary's translations of these tales become very cluttered because of this. I had studied the Warring States and Three Kingdoms periods quite a bit, if not in an academic setting, and even I was usually confused as to when and where I was in a particular tale.

However, Mr. Cleary makes an even greater mistake in certain tales by omitting the names of participants. And when a tale refers to "this general and that governor and that other general...", it's linguistic chaos. As difficult as it may be to know the various phonetically translated names, omitting them not only raises questions as to the translation's faithfulness to the original text, but also discredits such tales on a stylistic level -- without the specificity of characters, the accounts may well have been fictitious (though they're not).

On a very broad level, some of the concepts in this book probably can be applied to the modern day. But there are precious few strategies to be absorbed from here that are detailed and specific enough to prove practically useful. Personally, I had bought this book in hopes of getting a more historical and less mystical picture of the man Zhuge Liang himself, and on that front, this book was entirely wrong for the job. I knew no more about Zhuge Liang after reading this than I had known from growing up in Chinese culture, reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and my past historical research into the Three Kingdoms period. So to me, this book is simply a novelty, lacking in the information I needed.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent study in leadership & strategy, July 29, 1999

By 

Life of Brian (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering the Art of War (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

The Chinese have been studying leadership almost two millenia before it became a popular management topic in the West. In the first chapter of "The Art of War", Sun Tzu already recognised leadership as one of 5 factors that determines a nation's strategic success. Zhuge Liang has substantial authority to espouse on the subject - he is the most capable ( and feared ) strategist in China's turbulent era of Three Kingdoms. Cleary has put forth Zhuge's thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew this book was out there?, September 7, 2003

By 

M. A Jenkins "southerndudeman" (Manhattan, KS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mastering the Art of War (Shambhala Dragon Editions) (Paperback)

I must confess, I was ignorant that any of the great warlord Zhuge Liang's work still existed today. Imagine my surprise then, in typing the name into Amazon and coming up with this work. Needless to say, the price was right, and so I ordered it.

I was not disappointed! While I cannot say that Zhuge Liang did not lift his thoughts from another more ancient writer (I am certainly not the scholar of Chinese literature that I claim to be!), nonetheless, his thoughts are quite clear on the right (and more importantly, WRONG) ways of leading an army, and indeed, these words can be applied to other situations. In particular, pay attention to the essay "The virtues and faults of the great general", which I think is a lesson for ANY walk of life.

Also, the writing of Liu Pi are collected here, but I must say that the reader probably wants familiarity with the intrigues of the "Three Kingdoms" at this point. Still, with so many nuggets of wisdom to be found, and at this price, you would be foolish not to pick this up, and three kingdom fans may also broaden their own knowledge.