Sun Tzu and The Art of War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496BC, according to tradition), a legendary figure from the beginning of the Iron Age in China, around the time of Confucius. He may have been the historical figure Sun Wu, a military adviser at the court of King Helu of Wu (who reigned between about 514 and 496 BC), one of the kings in power in the Warring States period of Chinese history (6th - 5th century BC). Sun Tzu was credited as the author of The Art of War, a work on military strategy that soon became influential in China and then Japan both for its guidance on conducting and avoiding war and for its approach to strategy generally. After The Art of War was translated into European languages in C18th, its influence spread to military academies around the world.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Hilde De Weerdt 6 episodes
  Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University
• Tim Barrett 8 episodes
  Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London
• Imre Galambos No other episodes
  Reader in Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge

Reading list

• Military Culture in Imperial China
  Nicola Di Cosmo (Ed.) (Harvard University Press, 2009) Google Books →
• Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change
  Hildegard Diemberger, Karl Ehrhard and Peter F. Kornicki (eds.) (Brill, 2016) Google Books →
• Early China: A Social and Cultural History
  Li Feng (Cambridge University Press, 2013) Google Books →
• Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History
  Alastair Iain Johnston (Princeton University Press, 1995) Google Books →
• Sun Bin: The Art of Warfare: A Translation of the Classic Chinese Work of Philosophy and Strategy
  D. C. Lau and Roger T. Ames (State University of New York Press, 2003) Google Books →
• Sanctioned Violence in Early China
  Mark Edward Lewis (State University of New York Press, 1990) Google Books →
• Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide
  Michael Loewe (ed.) (Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1993) Google Books →
• The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China including The Art of War
  Ralph D. Sawyer (Basic Books, 1993) Google Books →
• Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare: The First English Translation Incorporating the Recently Discovered Yin-ch'ueh-shan Texts
  Sun-tzu (trans. Roger Ames) (Ballantine Books, 1993)
• Sun Tzu on the Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in the World
  Sun Tzu (trans. Lionel Giles) Google Books →
• The Art of War
  Sun-tzu (trans. John Minford) (Viking Press, 2002) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Confucius
  
  1 Nov, 2001 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
• Clausewitz and On War
  
  17 May, 2012 350 Public administration and military science
• The Han Synthesis
  
  14 Oct, 2004 950 History of Asia
• The Arthashastra
  
  3 Mar, 2022 320 Political science
• Chinese Legalism
  
  10 Dec, 2015 950 History of Asia
• The Art of War
  
  12 Jun, 2003 350 Public administration and military science
• China’s Warring States period
  
  1 Apr, 2004 950 History of Asia
• Xenophon
  
  26 May, 2011 930 History of the Ancient World
• Thucydides
  
  29 Jan, 2015 930 History of the Ancient World
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms
  
  27 Jun, 2013 950 History of Asia

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b09smh59

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09smh59

Auto-category: 951.03 (Chinese history)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, quote, The art of war is vital to the state, a road either to safety or to ruin, end quote.