The Author Nobody Knows
Sun Tzu — Master Sun — was a Chinese military general who lived during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, around 544 to 496BC. This was a time of near-constant warfare between rival Chinese states. Sun Tzu served the state of Wu. Remarkably little is known about him personally — he exists almost entirely through his text. The Art of War is 13 chapters, approximately 6,000 characters in the original Chinese. It can be read in an afternoon. And it has been in continuous print for over 2,500 years.
The Central Idea
The central insight of the Art of War is this: the best victory is the one won before the fighting starts. Sun Tzu was obsessed with preparation, intelligence and positioning. "Know your enemy and know yourself," he wrote, "and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." He understood that most military failure results not from inferior force but from inferior information, poor preparation and flawed psychology. His insistence on intelligence gathering, deception and psychological warfare was centuries ahead of Western military thinking.
Who Studies the Art of War Today
The Art of War is on the reading list of the US Marine Corps and military academies worldwide. General Vo Nguyen Giap, who defeated both France and the United States in Vietnam, cited Sun Tzu's influence explicitly. Mao Zedong studied it extensively. In business, the text has been cited by executives at Toyota, Apple and numerous hedge funds. Steve Jobs reportedly kept a copy on his desk.
Why It Never Goes Out of Date
The Art of War endures because it is not fundamentally about warfare. It is about competition — about the nature of any conflict between parties with opposing interests. Replace "army" with "company," "general" with "CEO," "enemy territory" with "market" — every chapter still applies. The principles of asymmetric strategy, information advantage and psychological positioning are more relevant in the age of digital competition than they have ever been. One book, written before Rome existed, still shaping how the world operates. For a contrast between strategic brilliance and its absence see our article on Napoleon's Russian campaign.