The Art of War
A treatise arguing that the best victory involves no fighting.
- When
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Attributed to Sun Tzu around 500 BCE, the Art of War treats warfare as a matter of intelligence, deception, terrain, logistics and morale rather than valour, and holds that the supreme excellence is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Its authorship and date are debated. It survives because it generalises: it has been read as strategy by soldiers, executives and negotiators for 2,500 years.