The Art of War: The Essential Translation of the Classic Book of Life (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

For more than two thousand years, Sun-tzu's The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advise on battlefield tactics, managing troops and terrain, and employing cunning and deception. Capturing the literary quality of 'The Art of War' - its lucid, epigrammatic, almost poetic style - as well as its philosophical and strategic content, John Minford's new translation presents the core text in two different formats. First, the unadorned thirteen chapters allow readers to form their own first impressions of the ancient words of wisdom ascribed to Sun-tzu. Then the same text appears with extensive running commentary from the canon of traditional Chinese commentators and others, providing context and subtext to the work. Even those readers familiar with 'The Art of War' will experience it anew, finiding it more fascinating--and more chilling--than ever.