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The Art of War

Authors: Sun Tzu, Sun Zi
Creator: Lionel Giles
Publisher: Filiquarian Publishing
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

4 reviews
Sales Rank: 253

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 68
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4

ISBN: 1599869772
Dewey Decimal Number: 181
EAN: 9781599869773
ASIN: 1599869772

Publication Date: May 1, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Not what I was expecting, but quirky and useful June 4, 2008
I was expecting a huge tome full of Confuscian statements which are allegorical to warfare. What I received was a 69-page book of short instructions which are dirrectly about warfare, but in many cases allegorical to life.

Possibly they're all in some way applicable to the day-to-day, the fighting with fire section does seem a bit specialised, but doubtless the scales will fall from my eyes at some stage and I will be able to use its teachings in buying tangerines from waitrose.

The best thing about the book is the ability to spice up conversation. Never again will I use a hackneyed marketing phrase where something from Sun Tzu will work. Brilliant.

3 out of 5 stars

This translation seems hard to apply to myself April 27, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful

I cannot yet see the way that all the content this book offers about the principles of Sun Tzu can be applied to life on a whole.
This book is incredibily concise and seems to only demonstate practical instructions. I'm left using own imagination to discover what they could truely mean and offer to me in my own circumstances seen as I am not really in a battle field with two opposing forces.
By using this idea however as an absolute representation of lifes struggles the book can be great but in this edition, a lot of the writings are simply too practical, saying about camping and assuring you are away from rivers, for that to appear to be the case. Certainly some of these pointers can have spiritual value and ideas of balance between armies actions and how they forecast victory or defeat are apparent.
I need to be more patient to find the true messages from the book still. It's compacted practical sentences make it hard for me to do so however, this leaves yourself to make your own interpretations.
Other editions may offer more information making it clearer to understand.
This is a test of understanding to me and I look forward to discovering the books true messages. This short translation just makes that harder.
Having said all this, I've only read the first chapter so far so it may all turn around.

4 out of 5 stars

useful, if you want to start a war. April 11, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

when i heard about this book from friends i expected tao te chingesque aphorisms over and over again but when i first flicked through it i realised that this is so much more.
genuinely useful advice is interspersed with impassioned speeches about the honour of war
"When some are seen advancing and some retreating, it is a lure"
"If birds gather on any spot, it is unoccupied"
"the leader of armies is the arbiter of people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril"
OK so it's not really useful to you but it will make you think differently about conflict because Sun Tzu has managed to prove that it truly can be an art

5 out of 5 stars

A must read book ! September 25, 2007
5 out of 16 found this review helpful

Short but Sweet !
Applicable theories even today !
Must Read, more than once !