Sun-Tzu (About)

Sun-Tzu (About)

By Madison Nef

Sun-Tzu is a well-known and highly respected author. He wrote the book “The Art of War”, which many consider to be the best book written on the subject (war). If you wanted to just skim the surface on who he was, you could say that little was known about his birth, that he was a military specialist, general and author and that he died in 496 BC. However, to do so would be a great injustice to his name- while a lot of his life was shrouded in mystery, we do know more about him than just the basics. Digging through multiple sites, here is what I found out about “Sun-Tzu”:

The two oldest known records, The Spring and Autumn Annals and Records of the Grand Historian both have different accounts of Sun-Tzu’s birth. The Annals, which are a little bit older than the Records, have Tzu as being born in Qi, while the Records claim he was born in Wu. The name that Sun-Tzu is most recognized by is actually just a title meaning “Master Sun”. There is a lot of speculation surrounding his birth name, or if “he” was born at all. Two variants of the name are Sun-Wu and Wu-Tzu. Both sources agree that Sun-Tzu was born late in the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 BC), and that he served as a military general and strategist for king Helu of Wu in the late sixth century BC, beginning near 512 BC.

A well known story about Sun-Tzu, recorded by Sima Qian, illustrates Sun-Tzu as follows:
Before hiring Sun-Tzu, King Helu needed him to prove his skill. As a test, he ordered Sun-Tzu to train a harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Tzu divided them into two different groups, putting the two concubines most favored by Helu each in charge of a group. Tzu ordered the concubines to face right, and when ordered to do so they giggled. Tzu replied by telling them that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for making sure they knew the orders given to them. He then gave the same command and they giggled again.

Sun-Tzu got sick of the behavior and ordered that Helu’s two favorite concubines be executed, to the king’s protests. He explained to the king that if the soldiers the general was in charge of understood their commands but did not obey, that it was the fault of the officers. He went on to say that once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even IF the king protested. After the concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Both concubines listened to the orders directly and completed them without frivolity, seeing what the costs were.

Sima Qian then claimed that Sun-Tzu proved on the battlefield that his theories were effective at the Battle of Boju, that he had an extremely successful military career and that he wrote The Art of War BASED on his tested expertise. This is all well and good, HOWEVER, Zuo Zhuan, an earlier historical text that gives a much more detailed account of the Battle of Boju, doesn’t mention Tzu at all.

There has also been a great deal of speculation surrounding “The Art of War”. There are some who question if Sun-Tzu even existed due to lack of records, and many believe that a general by the name of Wu-Tzu wrote the Art of War under the pen name Sun-Tzu. Still others think that the book was co-written by many different generals of the era. I personally think that it was written by only one man, simply because of the TWO birth records. It’s common sense. I think that Wu-Tzu (or whoever he was) did use a pen name as Sun-Tzu (as mentioned above) means “Master Sun”. Not a typical name, even for that era.

Who do YOU think wrote “The Art of War”?

Maddie