~The Art of War or 13 Steps to Victory ~

Overview:
Over 2500 years old, the heart of this book has been a source of inspiration and guidance for military leaders, warriors, businessmen and politicians from both Eastern and Western schools of thought. In it, the author lays a foundation for sound strategy that is so simple and true that his influence is seen to this day in the methods employed by many modern armed forces around the world. As a veteran, I have seen his footprints in the drill and step of boot-shod feet and I have heard his voice in the drill sergeant’s call.

The 13 chapters of this book, which is only really a book because of the commentaries and the usual publisher’s filler material, are short concise edicts intended by the author to make simple the knowledge necessary to winning in war. In all, the actual words of Sun Tzu are few and therefore what makes, or breaks, the book is the translation which is usually accompanied by the commentaries of the translator to offer insight into the meaning of the original text and the context in which it appears.

This review is about Shambala’s Pocket Edition of Sun Tzu’s masterpiece, which is an abridged version of their Dragon edition. All of Sun Tzu’s words appear but only ‘selected’ commentaries have been included. Pocket edition is a fitting format for this book measuring 3 inches by 4-1/2 inches and is, even with minimal commentaries thrown in, no more than 114 pages long.

The words of Sun Tzu are fairly straight forward and at times appear to be nothing more than the application of common sense to logistical problems. He is translated as saying, “Do not press a desperate enemy.” That is pretty easy to comprehend and chances are pretty good that you didn’t need him to tell you that. The translator's commentary on this is simply, “An exhausted animal will still fight as a matter of natural law.”

The Real Deal:
Sun Tzu is significant for historical and tactical reasons. His text is also important as an example of Eastern philosophy or, as some would argue, mysticism. I think that anyone interested in any of these subjects should definitely read Sun Tzu’s work. Employing the strategies laid out within The Art of War may enable the reader to become a much better soldier, officer or competitor but this text is not essential to doing so.

This review is centered primarily on the Shambala edition though, not the ancient text that it surrounds. Cleary's comments seem to be of some help in making sense of the more dense bits but I'm not convinced that they make this book work for me.

This edition makes a really handy companion since it can go anywhere. The cover is fairly attractive. And the simplistic pragmatism of Sun Tzu is brilliant. However, I still have some issues with this book.

For such a small and simple text, $6.00(USD) seems a bit much since I purchased this book back in ’93. At the time I was in the military and felt that I had to have it. Now I’m not so sure it was worth that sum. This point is driven home to me by its abundant availability over the internet. Normally I recommend that texts like this be purchased to provide incentive to publishers to keep them in print, but Sun Tzu has such an ardent following that I’m not concerned about his work being lost to the mists of time.

In preparing this review I visited www.google.com and entered the words Sun Tzu Art War and what I found was the following:

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi085.pdf
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi084.pdf

Both of these links lead to files that contain The Art of War as translated by Dr. Giles (the Shambala edition is by Dr. Cleary), in pdf format. The first one contains the entirety of his work, including all commentaries. The second one has just the translated words of Sun Tzu. These are just two of the many files that are out there to be found by anyone with access to the web(the above search on Google generated about 28,000 responses).

Are these two translations comparable? Consider the following excerpts that are taken from the very first passage in each translation.

Cleary (Shambala) edition: “Military action is important to the nation – it is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is imperative to examine it.”

Giles edition: “Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected."

I sort of prefer the Giles translation but I don’t really see a difference in quality. Another bonus in Giles is the inclusion of a story that reveals the real nature of this highly revered philospher-warrior. It involves his beheading of two women for the purpose of proving his methods. The book doesn't seem quite so wondrous once you start working out the details of just how Sun Tzu perfected his art.

Two pages from the translator (two tiny pages) preface the Shambala edition. Over thirty pages of commentary preface the Giles edition. I cannot vouch for the pinkmonkey website or for how long these links may remain active. Some of their texts are free and others may be downloaded for a fee, according to their homepage. I do not know if these texts are meant to be free or for fee, but they are easily found and accessed through the Google search engine. You should use caution if you decide to purchase anything online, regardless of what site it is from. Also, there are many places online where you can find the text of The Art of War for free.

In Conclusion:
If you want to have a portable copy in book form, buy it. Otherwise, download another translation for free.

Amount Paid ($USD): 6.00 (in 1993)