Sun-Tzu

January 1, 1993
This is an essential text for any library with a research collection in Chinese history and philosophy, as it is the first translation of the military/philosophy work Sun-tzu ping fa to incorporate the five chapters unearthed by archaeologists in 1972 at Yin-chueh-shan in Shantung province, China. It is also the first English translation to use the 13-chapter version of Sun-tzu found in that same dig dated 1000 years prior to previously available texts. The translator, who heads the University of Hawai'i's Center for Chinese Studies, provides an elucidating introduction to the text, the excavations, and the authorship of Sun-tzu and describes its import as a philosophical text. The translation adds the romanized form for certain key translated terms, which some readers may find intrusive. Some of the translated fragments are so brief as to be impenetrable, but their inclusion results in a level of completeness never before reached in a translation of Sun-tzu. Since there was frequent mention of this book as Gordon Gekko's primer in the film Wall Street, there may be popular interest in it as well.--Ed.-- D.E. Perushek, Univ. of Tennessee Libs., Knoxville

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 1993
This new translation of the classic ancient Chinese treatise on strategy incorporates material discovered since the early 1970s as well as an extensive scholarly apparatus putting the work in the context of Chinese philosophy and history. Both old and new material have the same thrust: war is a risky and expensive business, and the virtuous ruler ought to be as prudent about waging it as circumstances permit. Many of the work's maxims reflect common sense (or, in view of the weight of historical evidence, sense one wishes were common), and many more reflect an extremely sophisticated approach to psychological warfare. Indispensable for any military or Chinese studies collection, either to replace or supplement S. B. Griffith's translation of 1963. ((Reviewed Jan. 1, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)