The Art of War (Illustrated and Annotated)

Author: (Han) Cao Cao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: The Art of War was written by Sun Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period. Since its creation, it has been regarded as a classic by generations of military strategists, with an extraordinary number of commentaries. Before the Song Dynasty, there were as many as eleven famous commentaries passed down to later generations with written records. They are: Han · Cao Cao, Liang · Meng Shi, Tang · Du You, Li Qian, Du Mu, Chen Hao, Song · Wang Xi, Jia Lin, Mei Yaojun, He Shi, and Zhang Yu. Some scholars argue that Du You's commentary on The Art of War is why it is considered one of the ten commentaries. However, most ancient published commentaries were of the eleven-commentary version. The ancients may have included Du You as one of the commentaries because his commentary truly had unique insights. The ancients were not bound by form and did not care whether his commentary was on The Art of War or included in Tongdian, they simply compiled it as one of the commentaries, which should be reasonable. We tend to lean toward the eleven-commentary version for another reason: The Art of War is a military text, and what we study is its essence, not the commentator themselves. Therefore, who the commentator is is not important; what matters is how their commentary is.