The Art of War and Other Classics of Eastern Thought by Sun Tzu

The Art of War and Other Classics of Eastern Thought Reviews

• 
  Kevin

  This isn't my first delving into Taoism or Eastern Ideologies. As an ideology Taoism is one on previous occasions I have found great joy in reading and learning from its wisdom. Picking up another copy of the Art of War with four other great Eastern writings for me was a no brainer. Unfortunately while the Art of War is translated by Lionel Giles is a good translation, everything else in the book is translated by James Legge.
  
  Don't be upset if that means absolutely nothing to you, it meant nothing to me when I picked up this compilation at Barnes N Noble. What James Legge's translations are is severely lacking in everything, but word count. Instead of faithful translations of the original text (with a bit of optimization to maintain readability) the text are interpreted. Each passage becomes wordy, losing its original charm and insight.
  
  It is painfully obvious that Legge had little respect for the material he was translating. In his forward he dismisses nearly everything the Chinese believed calling it fantasies, fiction, while asserting the legitimacy of his Christian beliefs. After a certain level of posturing I could no longer stand to read his forward and skipped onto the main course of the translation only to find what can only be called a bastardization of the original.
  
  Unfortunately as I discovered, this isn't the only translations by James Legge included in this compilation. Every other text is translated by him, each as it turned out after a bit of research, are equally as poor as this Tao Te Ching translation.
  
  Don't get this compilations, do some research and grab the competent translated versions of the works you are interested in. While the binding and paper are sturdy the contents are lacking, unless you need a these particular translations for school or discussion stay clear.
  
• 
  Zy Marquiez

  The Art Of War & Other Classics Of Easter Philosophy showcases some of the most timeless and meaningful eastern philosophical classics to exist. The best part is that the book is as beautiful outside as the knowledge is endless in the inside.
  
  With ivory white paper, and a solid binding and spine to boot, the Cantebury Classics offer a LOT of value in a leatherbound book. In fact, out of all the Cantebery Classics its hands down my favorite one - aesthetically pleasing and content-wise.
  
  To get a broader perspective of what the book contains, the Table Of Content Follows:
  
  The Art Of War [Without Commentary]
  The Art Of War [With Commentary]
  The Tao Te Ching
  Confucius Analects
  The Great Learning
  The Doctrine Of The Mean
  The Works Of Mencius
  
  Having recently read the Tao Te Ching and Confucius' Analects, it was a pleasant surprise to see them here again.
  
  The gems of wisdom contained in those books is much to ruminate upon, so having those books, along with The Art Of Wars and others was just like having Christmas seven days in a row.
  
  If you are interested in any of the above books and also plan to venture into the other books covered in the table of contents sometime, do yourself a favor and get this book. You will NOT regret it. It will also save you money when you add the prices of all six works. Even if purchased all used they will cost more than this one.
  
  Having been given multiple copies of Art of War it still didn't detract me from getting this one. Wouldn't hesitate getting one again, and in fact am considering purchasing one for posterity's sake since this one's getting highlighted and written upon with notes to the hilt.
  
  The smorgasbord of insights within the pages in this book is as lucid as it is prodigious.
• 
  Joshua Thompson

  An extension collection of classics of Eastern Philosophy, including The Art of War, the Tao Te Ching, the Confucian Analects and others. It's been quite some time since I read philosophy, so as a reader, I got a bit fatigued as I continued this volume, despite only reading it in 30-60 pages chunks. So the lower rating is more a reflection on my own shortcomings as a student of philosophy.
  
  That said, I did see a lot of fine applications of The Art of War to other facets of life, and found this intriguing. As a volume, I wish there had been more commentary, like that presented with The Art of War. Perhaps that would have helped my own personal enjoyment of this volume, and likely lowered my fatigue as a reader as I got further into the text.
• 
  Camilla

  An enduring book of numerous digestible wisdoms applicable to many aspects of life.
• 
  Marina

  Basic Info:
  Author: Sun Tzu Country: China Language: Chinese Subject: Military strategy and tactics Publication Date: 5th century BC (500 BCE to 450 BCE)
  General Memory:
  This book is an indispensable guide to living a good and righteous life. As a female student of yoga and meditation I found advice to enhance my practice. It is full of ancient and timeless wisdom with counsel for everyone.
  The Art of War: I. Laying Plans/The Calculations II. Waging War/The Challenge III. Attack by Stratagem/The Plan of Attack IV. Tactical Dispositions/Positioning V. Use of Energy/Directing
  VI Weak Points and Strong / Illusion and Reality VII Maneuvering an Army / Engaging The Force
  VIII Variation of Tactics / The Nine Variations IX The Army on the March / Moving The Force
  X Classification of Terrain / Situational Positioning XI The Nine Situations XII Attack By Fire / The Fiery Attack
  XIII Use of Spies / The Use of Intelligence
  
  Ideas:
  "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be put at risk even in a hundred battles.
  If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
  If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself."
  
  KNOWLEDGE IS EVERYTHING
  
  "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."
  
  DECEPTION IS EVERYTHING
  
  5 factors: The Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, The Commander, Method and Discipline
  These are:(1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline
  
  The Commander is everything as he stands out for the five cardinal virtues of the Chinese:
  1. Benevolence
  2. Integrity
  3. Self-Respect
  4. Wisdom
  5. Sincerity and Honesty
• 
  Norman Van Der Schyff

  This is my third version of the Art of War. This one is special, as it is very well presented, printed and bound in leather. The philosophies that accompany the Art of War, which include the Tao Te Ching, Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, and the Works of Mencius, all support to make the Art more understandable. It also gives an insight into the historical Chinese mindset. This specific issue makes for an excellent present for someone interested in management.
• 
  carlita_is_probably_reading

  Very strategic indeed. I wonder if our current forces utilizes the strategies mapped out in this guide. I know I would.
• 
  Lisa

  I've read The Art of War before, but this edition has a commentary which was very interesting to read as well.
• 
  William Schram

  The Art of War and Other Classics of Eastern Thought is published by Barnes and Noble. The publisher took old translations of these books and packaged them in this hardcover format. The Art of War is taken from the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles. The rest of the book is from translations by James Legge. This includes The Tao Te Ching, the Analects of Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Great Learning, and the Works of Mencius. All of these translations predate the 20th century.
  
  This edition is very scholarly. It includes a great deal of information on the text that explores the veracity of the timelines and so on. The Chinese claim these works to be old. The translator/ commentator has his doubts due to how many people have copied it and added or subtracted things to it.
  
  The Art of War section is presented twice; first as an unaltered format, next as a commentated edition. Each line is expanded upon and scrutinized. I don’t know who provides the commentary, but it might have been the translator. Thankfully, he is now long dead and cannot become insulted by what I say. The book does contain some glaring typos, but not too many. Sometimes they press ‘r’ instead of ‘e’ for instance. However, I doubt that this is only the mistake of the translator; I would say that it was overlooked in editing.
  
  The portions translated by James Legge are also well done. There are things to nitpick, but these are relatively minor considering the time these works were translated. The main complaint I can make is the racist remarks. Don’t get me wrong there is a scholarly bent to the book, so they certainly tried to keep it down, but the Western Superiority does come through in calling the people ‘chinamen’ and so on. Granted, they don’t do this all that often, but usually once is enough to stain a piece of writing.
  
  I enjoyed this book. I would certainly recommend it, but I don't know if a new translation would be necessary. Chinese is a tricky and nuanced language. A more recent translation would probably fix the issues I had with Legge's sections.
• 
  Fermin Quant

  An excellent collection of books.
  The Art of War commentary was much more researched and objective than I expected. It was also less in volume than I expected, without falling short of explaining. The initial part of the book explains how the commentary was created, and it is somewhat like the author studied multiple influential commentaries from all of history, and then proceeded to rank them, and them commented on his own based on the commentaries that he refers to. It is very well done.
  I must admit I expected something less methodical when I bought the book, and probably someone just speaking their mind about what they thought about the ideas and how they can be applied in today's world, but I was pleased to find that the author made a lot of effort in making the commentary as objective as possible.
  The other books in the collection were very worth reading and full of wisdom, it was my first time reading many and finding out they even existed and that they were so important. They are just books that already existed so I will not review them, since the only real added value of this collection is that they are all together, and the commentary part of The Art of War.
• 
  Dave

  The Art of War portion of the book, specifically the annotated section, was a good refresher from my days at Naval Post Graduate School. I learned more from the annotations than I did in the class! Unfortunately, the portion dealing with Confucius was poorly translated (in my uneducated in Chinese culture opinion). It seemed very pedestrian and poorly worded. The section dealing with Mencius was much better and made much more sense, but still could have used some cleaning up as it appeared to be a very literal translation. It would have been a tremendous help to have an introductory chapter on Chinese historical figures (there's kind of one there in the Art of War section, but it doesn't really appear to address the linear history that would be needed for a better understanding of Mencius).
• 
  Gray Kemplin

  Rating this book a 4/5 because although I see the works within as very insightful (some I deeply resonate with, others I find meaning from both where I can agree and challenge the arguments made), it’s based mainly on an older Wade-Gales translation which makes both for inaccurate pronunciation and some more obscurant translations of simpler passages. It is greatly convenient to have this collection, but worth remembering this and balancing it with occasional reference to more current translations (which are easily accessible online).
• 
  Auggie Heschmeyer

  What a great edition of this book. This was my third time reading it and I was still able to get new things out of it. Additionally, as this edition contains a collection of works that give context to the eponymous text (The Tao Te Ching, Confusician Analects, etc.), you're able to learn a thing or two about the worldview that led to Sun Tzu's masterpiece.
• 
  Maureen

  This was a reread from when I was in high school. I have to say I appreciate it a lot more as an adult. It is a classic that gives a fresh perspective with each telling. I enjoyed reading parts of it with my sons and only hope that when they are older they will reread it and it will give them fresh wisdom then.
• 
  William

  Outstanding collection of Chinese classics with plenty of commentary by the translators and editors.
• 
  Jack Divileison

  The Translation Chinese->Englisch isn't optimal and sadly there are few comments for an in-depth understanding. But it looks amazing on the outside :p
• 
  Yang Zheng

  While the Art of War and Tao Te Ching sections are great, most of the book is anecdotal accounts of other philosophers that are incredibly difficult to comprehend
• 
  Tel

  Definitely a must-read classic. My book review's here:
  
  
  http://telyouwhat.com/2020/books/admi...
• 
  Laura Decroos

  Took way too long to finish
• 
  tuesday

  he definitely knows how to art war
• 
  jamey

  yes i’m one of them
• 
  Suranjana

  Art of war 5 stars.
  Everything else two stars.
• 
  Ashley

  I don't have any quarrel with the works themselves. Whether or not I agree with them philosophically is another story, but they were really interesting to read. I'm a little curious about more of their presuppositions, which I was hoping this book would reveal, but I didn't really mind that they didn't: this book didn't promise that. What I am dissatisfied with is the lack of footnotes and commentary. In some of these writings, such as the Analects, explanations of Chinese honorifics, who's who, and more historical background would have been very helpful. Given the Western audience, I'm really surprised this wasn't regarded by the publishers as absolutely necessary. Furthermore, the inclusion of some sort of commentary would also have been nice, for the purpose of explaining allusions to other classics and explaining what the respective authors were actually saying, instead of trying to surmise this unnecessarily cryptic translation. If I had attempted to read this before taking AP World, it would have been extremely difficult to read without a lot of extra research. I recommend either doing a lot of background research and having some sort of guide before you, or finding a more helpful edition of these works.
  
  
• 
  Sintija Buhanovska

  Austrumu filozofijas klasika, kas aktuāla ir arī 21. gadsimta cilvēkiem. Mūžīgas vērtības, padomi, atziņas par valstīm, politiku, attiecībām, ģimeni, draudzību. Lasot nepamet jautājums: ja cilvēki jau daudzus simtus gadus atpakaļ zināja, uz kādiem principiem ir jāveido pasaules stabilitāte un ikviena labklājība, kāpēc mēs tomēr izliekamies, ka neko no tā visa nezinām? Vai kari un ienaids reiz spēs rimties? Un nevar taču nepiekrist, ka "(..) supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting", vai ne? Darbu apkopojums (ne tikai "Kara māksla"), ko pārlasīt vēl un vēl.
• 
  Jeni

  The Art of War was great; I totally understand why it's still being taught in military schools today. The biggest problem I had with this book is that it was like 1oo pages of explaining and then 50 pages of actual text. This caused me to skip sections and skim a lot more than I usually do. Not helped by the fact this took me months to read.