Sun Pin: Military Methods (History & Warfare) [Paperback]

Ralph D. Sawyer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813388880 | ISBN-13: 978-0813388885 | Publication Date: April 27, 1995 | Edition: 1St Edition

The enormous recent popularity in America of Sun-tzu's Art of War has heightened awareness of the great Chinese tradition of writing on theory and practice of war. This tradition has always emphasized that warfare is as much the deployment of spiritual and mental forces as of combat forces, as much a matter of patience and attention as of brute strength. As a result, new generations of readers have found many of its precepts applicable to forms of struggle far from any actual battlefield.While it has brought this tradition greater exposure, the reception of Art of War threatens to overshadow and obscure the other significant texts that followed in its wake. Foremost among these is Military Methods of the Art of War, written in the fourth century B.C. by the purported great-grandson of Sun-tzu, the general Sun Pin. Military Methods is both an extension of the strategic philosophy of the earlier work and a development of a new strategic style--one that enabled Sun Pin to guide the armies of the province of Ch'i to decisive victories over their enemies in the battles of Kuei-ling and Ma-ling.Long believed lost, the text of Military Methods was recovered from a Han dynasty tomb in 1972. The salvaged original, fragmentary in nature, is divided into thirty-three sections covering such topics as unfavorable terrains, the origins of war, "guest" and "host" armies, "male" and "female" cities, and the ten strategic uses of cavalry. To bridge the gaps in the original, translator Ralph D. Sawyer, the leading authority on Chinese military history and its major texts, has provided extensive commentary and notes, as well as a detailed historical introduction.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese, Japanese (translation)
Original Language: Chinese --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ralph D. Sawyer, one of America’s leading scholars in Chinese warfare, has worked extensively with major intelligence and defense agencies. After studying at MIT and Harvard and a brief stint of university teaching, Sawyer has spent the past thirty years lecturing and doing international consulting work focused on China.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 1St Edition edition (April 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813388880
• ISBN-13: 978-0813388885
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reading it is necessary to understand war., January 18, 1998

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[e-mail] (Irving, Texas, U.S.A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sun Pin: Military Methods (History & Warfare) (Paperback)

Great book. It's full of valuable information and provides solid examples of what Sun-Tzu wrote about. The historical background that is given in the beginning is worth reading all by itself. It's also a really good translation. Some translators do more than just translating, and as a consequence they skew meanings left and right, leaving the book a poor mess. This is not the case here. The only drawback is the mass of notes. Most are only comments on why some character is interpreted one way or the other, and while that may be interesting for sinologists and linguists, it is merely burdensome for the reader interested in the military theory of the book. Some of the notes do also offer information not known to one unfamiliar with the period, and make the book that much better. Overall, if you want to read Sun Pin, read this translation. If you don't even know who Sun Pin is, read this book.