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104-582: Sun Tzu ( / s uː n ˈ d z uː , s uː n ˈ s uː / soon DZOO , soon SOO ; traditional Chinese : 孫子 ; simplified Chinese : 孙子 ; pinyin : Sūnzǐ ) was a Chinese military general , strategist , philosopher , and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC). Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War , an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thought. Sun Tzu

208-406: A harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled. In response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated

312-588: A retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

416-535: A Western text on warfare and strategy. For example, the eleventh chapter states that a leader must be "serene and inscrutable" and capable of comprehending "unfathomable plans". The text contains many similar remarks that have long confused Western readers lacking an awareness of the East Asian context . The meanings of such statements are clearer when interpreted in the context of Taoist thought and practice. Despite its title, The Art of War addresses strategy in

520-540: A broad fashion, touching upon public administration and planning. The text outlines theories of battle, but also advocates diplomacy and the cultivation of relationships with other nations as essential to the health of a state. As such, the book has also become popular among political leaders and those in business management . For example, in the 1987 film Wall Street , the protagonist Gordon Gekko frequently cites passages from The Art of War as guiding principles for his aggressive trading techniques. On 10 April 1972,

624-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

728-493: A child attained the status of an umm walad , and a favorite concubine was given great luxury and honorary titles such as in the case of Marjan, who gave birth to al-Hakam II , the heir of Abd al-Rahman III ; he called her al-sayyida al-kubra (great lady). Several concubines were known to have had great influence through their masters or their sons, notably Subh during the Caliphate of Cordoba, and Isabel de Solís during

832-522: A harem, where the ruler's wives and concubines lived with female attendants, and eunuchs. Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term harem to describe the practices of the ancient Near East. There has been a modern trend to refer to the women's quarters of the Pharaoh's palace in Ancient Egypt as a harem. The popular assumption that Pharaonic Egypt had a harem is however an anachronism ; while

936-612: A harem. When Greek culture started to replace the Roman in the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century, it came to be seen as modest, especially for upper-class women, to keep to a special women's quarters ( gynaikonitis ), and until the 12th century, men and women are known to have participated in gender-segregated banquets at the Imperial Court; however Imperial women still appeared in public and did not live in seclusion, and

1040-510: A hidden world of sexual subjugation where numerous women lounged in suggestive poses, has influenced many paintings, stage productions, films and literary works. Some earlier European Renaissance paintings dating to the 16th century portray the women of the Ottoman harem as individuals of status and political significance. In many periods of Islamic history, individual women in the harem exercised various degrees of political influence, such as

1144-606: A matter of debate and it appears that their status varied depending on circumstances and that the highest female rank was not necessarily borne by the chief wife, but could be held by a daughter or a sister. The Sasanian harem was supervised by eunuchs, and also had female singers and musicians. However, while the Sasanian kings had harems, women in the Sassanid Empire in general did not live in seclusion; elaborate harems were detested and appear to have been exceptions to

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1248-661: A model for all Muslim women. The growing seclusion of women was illustrated by the power struggle between the Caliph Al-Hadi and his mother Al-Khayzuran , who refused to live in seclusion but instead challenged the power of the Caliph by giving her own audiences to male supplicants and officials and thus mixing with men. Her son considered this improper, and he publicly addressed the issue of his mother's public life by assembling his generals and asked them: Conquests had brought enormous wealth and large numbers of slaves to

1352-532: A much more detailed account of the Battle of Boju, but does not mention Sun Tzu at all. Around the 12th century AD, some Chinese scholars began to doubt the historical existence of Sun Tzu, primarily on the grounds that he is not mentioned in the historical classic Zuo Zhuan , which mentions most of the notable figures from the Spring and Autumn period. The name "Sun Wu" ( 孫武 ) does not appear in any text prior to

1456-588: A school of theorists in Qi or Wu ; Sun Bin ; and others. Sun Bin appears to have been an actual person who was a genuine authority on military matters, and may have been the inspiration for the creation of the historical figure "Sun Tzu" through a form of euhemerism . The name Sun Wu does appear in later sources such as the Shiji and the Wu Yue Chunqiu , but were written centuries after Sun Tzu's era. The use of

1560-454: A third school claims that the slips were published in the last half of the 5th century BC; this is based on how its adherents interpret the bamboo slips discovered at Yinque Shan in 1972. The Art of War is traditionally ascribed to Sun Tzu. It presents a philosophy of war for managing conflicts and winning battles. It is accepted as a masterpiece on strategy and has been frequently cited and referred to by generals and theorists since it

1664-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

1768-567: Is a component incorporated in the Art of War . According to Steven C. Combs in "Sun-zi and the Art of War : The Rhetoric of Parsimony", warfare is "used as a metaphor for rhetoric, and that both are philosophically based arts." Combs writes: "Warfare is analogous to persuasion, as a battle for hearts and minds." Combs compares Taoist and Aristotelian rhetoric, notably for the differences in persuasion. Daoist rhetoric in The Art of War warfare strategies

1872-556: Is available, it indicates that the harem was much more likely to be monogamous. For example, in late Ottoman Istanbul, only 2.29 percent of married men were polygynous, with the average number of wives being 2.08. In some regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, prevalence of women in agricultural work leads to wider practice of polygamy but makes seclusion impractical. In contrast, in Eurasian and North African rural communities that rely on male-dominated plough farming, seclusion

1976-503: Is critical in understanding China's push to become a superpower in the twenty-first century. Modern Chinese scholars explicitly rely on historical strategic lessons and The Art of War in developing their theories, seeing a direct relationship between their modern struggles and those of China in Sun Tzu's time. There is a great perceived value in Sun Tzu's teachings and other traditional Chinese writers, which are used regularly in developing

2080-528: Is described as "peaceful and passive, favoring silence over speech". This form of communication is parsimonious . Parsimonious behavior, which is highly emphasized in The Art of War as avoiding confrontation and being spiritual in nature, shapes basic principles in Taoism. In Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare , Mark McNeilly writes that a modern interpretation of Sun and his importance throughout Chinese history

2184-462: Is doubt as to Sun Tzu's rank and generalship. This caused much confusion as to when The Art of War was actually written. The first traditional view is that it was written in 512 BC by the historical Sun Wu, active in the last years of the Spring and Autumn period ( c.  722 –481 BC). A second view, held by scholars such as Samuel Griffith, places The Art of War during the middle to late Warring States period ( c.  481 –221 BC). Finally,

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2288-438: Is economically possible but polygyny is undesirable. This indicates that the fundamental characteristic of the harem is seclusion of women rather than polygyny. The idea of the harem or seclusion of women did not originate with Muhammad or Islam . The practice of secluding women was common to many Ancient Near East communities, especially where polygamy was permitted. In pre-Islamic Assyria and Persia, most royal courts had

2392-582: Is known about the alleged harems of the Parthians . Parthian royal men reportedly had several wives and kept them fairly secluded from all men except for relatives and eunuchs. According to Roman sources, Parthian kings had harems full of female slaves and hetairas secluded from contact with men, and royal women were not allowed to participate in the royal banquets. Also aristocratic Parthian men appear to have had harems, as Roman sources report of rich men travelling with hundreds of guarded concubines. However,

2496-414: Is known that they appeared in public and traveled with their husbands, participated in hunting and in feasts; at least the chief wife of a royal or aristocratic man did not live in seclusion, as it is clearly stated that wives customarily accompanied their husbands to dinner banquets, although they left the banquet when the "women entertainers" of the harem came in and the men began "merrymaking". Little

2600-520: Is regarded as extremely important by scholars, both because of Sun Bin's relationship to Sun Tzu and because of the work's addition to the body of military thought in Chinese late antiquity. The discovery as a whole significantly expanded the body of surviving Warring States military theory. Sun Bin's treatise is the only known military text surviving from the Warring States period discovered in

2704-458: Is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure. His birth name was Sun Wu ( traditional Chinese : 孫武 ; simplified Chinese : 孙武 ) and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing ( Chinese : 長卿 ). The name Sun Tzu —by which he is more popularly known—is an honorific which means "Master Sun ". Sun Tzu mastered

2808-465: Is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. Many of his concubines are only fragmentarily documented. As concubines, they were slave captives, sometimes acquired via the Barbary slave trade from Europe. One of them, an Irishwoman by the name Mrs. Shaw, was brought to his harem after having been enslaved. She was forced to convert to Islam when

2912-439: Is therefore apocryphal, and has been used because of incorrect assumptions that Ancient Egypt was similar to later Islamic harem culture. The kings of Ancient Assyria are known to have had a harem regulated by royal edicts, in which the women lived in seclusion guarded by slave eunuchs. A number of regulations were designed to prevent disputes among the women from developing into political intrigues. The women were guarded by

3016-416: Is uncertain. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian and other traditional Chinese historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544–496 BC. Modern scholars accepting his historicity place the extant text of The Art of War in the later Warring States period of 475 to 221 BC, based on its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare. Traditional accounts state that

3120-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

3224-463: The Battle of Boju , has no record of him fighting in that battle. Skeptics cite possible historical inaccuracies and anachronisms in the text, and that the book was actually a compilation from different authors and military strategists. Attribution of the authorship of The Art of War varies among scholars and has included people and movements including Sun; Chu scholar Wu Zixu ; an anonymous author;

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3328-537: The Emirate of Granada . However, concubines were always slaves subjected the will of their master. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III is known to have executed two concubines for reciting what he saw as inappropriate verses, and tortured another concubine with a burning candle in her face while she was held by two eunuchs after she refused sexual intercourse. The concubines of Abu Marwan al-Tubni (d. 1065) were reportedly so badly treated that they conspired to murder him; women of

3432-780: The Hadith literature. But by the time of the Abbasid Caliphate , women were ideally kept in seclusion. The practice of gender segregation in Islam was influenced by an interplay of religion, customs and politics. The harem system first became fully institutionalized in the Islamic world under the Abbasid caliphate . Seclusion of women was established in various communities of the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Persia before

3536-582: The Kensiu language . Harem Although the institution has experienced a sharp decline in the modern era due to a rise in education and economic opportunities for women, as well as the influence of Western culture , the seclusion of women is still practiced in some parts of the world, such as rural Afghanistan and conservative states of the Persian Gulf . In the West, the harem, often depicted as

3640-660: The Kuomintang to The Art of War . The work strongly influenced writings about warfare in Mao's Little Red Book , which further influenced communist insurgencies around the world. The Art of War was introduced into Nara Japan in c.  AD 760 and the book quickly became popular among Japanese military generals. Through its later influence on the Sengoku period "Great Unifiers" of Japan, Oda Nobunaga , Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and Tokugawa Ieyasu , it significantly affected

3744-553: The Records of the Grand Historian , and may have been a made-up descriptive cognomen meaning "the fugitive warrior" – the surname "Sun" can be glossed as the related term "fugitive" ( xùn 遜 ), while "Wu" is the ancient Chinese virtue of "martial, valiant" ( wǔ 武 ), which corresponds to Sun Tzu's role as the hero's doppelgänger in the story of Wu Zixu . The only historical battle attributed to Sun Tzu,

3848-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

3952-633: The Sultanate of Women in the Ottoman Empire . The word has been recorded in the English language since the early 17th century. It comes from the Arabic: ḥarīm , which can mean "a sacred inviolable place", "harem" or "female members of the family". In English the term harem can mean also "the wives (or concubines) of a polygamous man." The triliteral Ḥ-R-M appears in other terms related to

4056-572: The Trans-Saharan slave trade . It was not unheard of for a ruler to marry one of his concubines. Many slaves were also provided to the harem from Africa via the Trans-Saharan slave trade. This was particularly true about the enslaved maidservants, as well as the eunuchs. The Alaouite harem is most known during the reign of Moulay Ismail , Alaouite sultan of Morocco from 1672 to 1727. Moulay Ismail had over 500 enslaved concubines. He

4160-565: The Yinqueshan Han Tombs were accidentally unearthed by construction workers in Shandong . Scholars uncovered a collection of ancient texts written on unusually well-preserved bamboo slips . Among them were The Art of War and Sun Bin 's Military Methods . Although Han dynasty bibliographies noted the latter publication as extant and written by a descendant of Sun, it had previously been lost. The rediscovery of Sun Bin's work

4264-658: The unification of Japan in the early modern era. After the Meiji Restoration , it remained popular among the Imperial Japanese armed forces . Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō , who led Japan's forces to victory in the Russo-Japanese War , was an avid reader of Sun Tzu. Ho Chi Minh translated the work for his Vietnamese officers to study. His general Võ Nguyên Giáp was likewise an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu's ideas. Taoist rhetoric

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4368-648: The 7th-century BC, and Media transformed into the Achaemenid Empire ). According to Greek sources, the nobility of the Medes kept no less than five wives, who were watched over by eunuchs. Greek historians have reported of harems of the Achaemenid Empire . Herodotus reported that each Persian royal or aristocratic man had several wives and concubines who came to the husband on a well-regulated, turn by turn basis. and had sole control over their children until they were five years old. The Old Persian word for

4472-460: The Alaouite dynasty often conducted political marriages, cementing strategic alliances with internal tribal and aristocratic men by marrying female members of their family. Aside from their legal wives, they also, similar to other Muslim rulers, followed the custom of having concubines. The enslaved concubines of the Alaouite dynasty famously often came from the Barbary slave trade , as well as from

4576-414: The Caliph, the harem women consisted of his slave concubines. The slaves of the Caliph were often European saqaliba slaves trafficked from Northern or Eastern Europe. While male saqaliba could be given work in a number offices such as: in the kitchen, falconry, mint, textile workshops, the administration or the royal guard (in the case of harem guards, they were castrated), but female saqaliba were placed in

4680-561: The Christian states of Northern Spain, and given a new name when they entered the royal harem. The Royal harem of the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco has historically not been the subject of much research. Known from the 17th-century onward, the royal harem is known to have followed the common model of a royal Muslim harem, including wives, enslaved concubines, female slave-servants and enslaved eunuchs as guards and officials. The rulers of

4784-421: The Grand Historian ( Shiji ) state that Sun Tzu was born in Qi . Both sources also agree that Sun Tzu was born in the late Spring and Autumn period and that he was active as a general and strategist, serving King Helü of Wu in the sixth century BC, beginning around 512 BC. Sun Tzu's victories then inspired him to write The Art of War . The Art of War was one of the most widely read military treatises in

4888-631: The Muslim elite. The majority of the slaves were women and children, many of whom had been dependents or harem-members of the defeated Sassanian upper classes. In the wake of the conquests an elite man could potentially own a thousand slaves, and ordinary soldiers could have ten people serving them. Nabia Abbott , preeminent historian of elite women of the Abbasid Caliphate, describes the lives of harem women as follows. The choicest women were imprisoned behind heavy curtains and locked doors,

4992-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

5096-474: The Persians, but Greek society also influenced the development of patriarchal tradition. The ideal of seclusion was not fully realized as social reality. This was in part because working-class women often held jobs that required interaction with men. In the Byzantine Empire, the very ideal of gender segregation created economic opportunities for women as midwives, doctors, bath attendants and artisans since it

5200-605: The Roman reports about Parthian harems seem to mirror the traditional Greek reports about the Achaemenid harems, and they similarly are biased, and cannot be verified by archeological evidence. The information about the Sasanian harem reveals a picture that closely mirrors the alleged Achaemenid customs. In the Sassanian Empire, Roman reports say that it was common for men to have multiple wives. The hierarchy of

5304-597: The Royal Palace does not necessarily mean that they were secluded from contact with men, and despite the (possibly biased) Greek reports, there is no archeological evidence supporting the existence of a harem, or the seclusion of women from contact with men, at the Achaemenid court. Royal and aristocratic Achaemenid women were given an education in subjects that did not appear compatible with seclusion, such as horsemanship and archery. It does not appear that royal and aristocratic women lived in seclusion from men since it

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5408-604: The Sassanian harem is not clear. The Sassanian kings had one chief consort, who was the mother of the heir to the throne, as well as having several wives of lower rank, and concubines, all of whom accompanied him on travels, and even on campaigns. Five titles are attested to for royal women: “royal princess” ( duxšy , duxt ); “Lady” ( bānūg ); “Queen” ( bānbišn ); “Queen of the Empire” ( [Ērān]šahr bānbišn ) and "Queen of Queens" ( bānbišnān bānbišn ). The rank of these titles has been

5512-605: The Sultan wished to have intercourse with her, but was manumitted and married off to a Spanish convert when the Sultan grew tired of her. The Spanish convert being very poor, witnesses described her as being reduced to beggary. Other slave concubines would become favorites and thus allowed some influence, such as an Englishwoman called Lalla Balqis . Another favorite was a Spanish captive renamed Al-Darah, mother to Moulay Ismail's once favorite sons Moulay Mohammed al-Alim; and Moulay Sharif, whom he, himself educated. Around 1702, Al-Darah

5616-809: The Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates was reproduced by the Islamic realms developing from them, such as in the Emirates and Caliphates in Muslim Spain, Al-Andalus , which attracted a lot of attention in Europe during the Middle Ages until the Emirate of Granada was conquered in 1492. The most famous of the Andalusian harems was perhaps the harem of the Caliph of Cordoba . Except for the female relatives of

5720-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

5824-586: The advent of Islam, and some scholars believe that Muslims adopted the custom from the Byzantine Empire and Persia, retrospectively interpreting the Quran to justify it. Although the term harem does not denote women's quarters in the Quran , a number of Quranic verses discussing modesty and seclusion were held up by Quranic commentators as religious rationale for the separation of women from men, including

5928-511: The command, and again the concubines giggled. Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the king's two favored concubines, to the king's protests. He explained that if the general's soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, it was the fault of the officers. Sun Tzu also said that, once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Afterward, both companies, now well aware of

6032-467: The costs of further frivolity, performed their maneuvers flawlessly. Sima Qian claimed that Sun Tzu later proved on the battlefield that his theories were effective (for example, at the Battle of Boju ), that he had a successful military career, and that he wrote The Art of War based on his tested expertise. However, the Zuozhuan , a historical text written centuries earlier than the Shiji , provides

6136-432: The differing theories concerning the work's author or authors and date of completion are unlikely to be completely resolved. Some modern scholars believe that it contains not only the thoughts of its original author but also commentary and clarifications from later military theorists, such as Li Quan and Du Mu . Of the military texts written before the unification of China and Shi Huangdi 's subsequent book burning in

6240-463: The elites, but the practice remained characteristic of upper and middle classes, for whom the financial ability to allow one's wife to remain at home was a mark of high status. In some regions, such as the Arabian peninsula, seclusion of women was practiced by poorer families at the cost of great hardship, but it was generally economically unrealistic for the lower classes. Where historical evidence

6344-795: The emperor of the Maurya Empire in India, kept a harem of around 500 women, all of whom were under strict rules of seclusion and etiquette. In contrast to the earlier era of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Rashidun Caliphate , women in Umayyad and Abbasid society were absent from all arenas of the community's central affairs. It was very common for early Muslim women to play an active role in community life and even to lead men into battle and start rebellions, as demonstrated in

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6448-424: The eunuchs who also prevented their disputes from developing into political plots; they were banned from giving gifts to their servants (as such gifts could be used as bribes) and were not allowed any visitors who had not been examined and approved by officials. When the king traveled, his harem traveled with him, strictly supervised so as not to break regulations even under transport. In the 7th century BC, Assyria

6552-562: The fact that he kept the women in seclusion, denying them the benefit of marriage and progeny; this was counted as the fourth of the eight crimes for which he was later tried and executed. Khosrow himself claimed that he sent his favorite wife Shirin every year with an offer of the possibility of leaving his harem with a dowry for marriage, but that their luxurious lifestyle always prompted the women and girls to refuse his offer. South Asian traditions of female seclusion, called purdah , may have been influenced by Islamic customs. Ashoka ,

6656-456: The general's descendant Sun Bin wrote a treatise on military tactics, also titled The Art of War . Since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as "Sun Tzu" in classical Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical, prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bin's treatise in 1972. Sun Tzu's work has been praised and employed throughout the arc of East Asian military history since its composition, and eventually earned global attention. During

6760-447: The harem is not attested, but it can be reconstructed as xšapā.stāna (lit. night station or place where one spends the night). The royal household was controlled by the chief wife and queen, who as a rule was the daughter of a Persian prince and mother of the heir to the throne, and who was subject only to the king. She had her own living quarters, revenue, estates and staff, which included eunuchs and concubines. The second rank under

6864-427: The harem were also known to have been subjected to rape when rivaling factions conquered different palaces. The rulers of the Nasrid dynasty of the Emirate of Granada (1232–1492) customarily married their cousins, but also kept slave concubines in accordance with Islamic custom . The identity of these concubines is unknown, but they were originally Christian women ( rūmiyyas ) bought or captured in expeditions in

6968-451: The harem. The harem could contain thousands of slave concubines; the harem of Abd al-Rahman I consisted of 6,300 women. The saqaliba concubines were appreciated for their light skin. The concubines ( jawaris ) were educated in accomplishments to make them attractive and useful for their master, and many became known and respected for their knowledge in a variety of subjects from music to medicine. A jawaris concubine who gave birth to

7072-424: The idealized gender segregation was never fully enforced. There is no evidence among early Iranians of harem practices, that is, taking large numbers of wives or concubines and keeping them in seclusion. However, Iranian dynasties are said to have adopted harem practices after their conquests in the Middle East, where such practices were used in some cultures such as Assyria (the Median Empire conquered Assyria in

7176-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

7280-407: The king and his guests as musicians, dancers and singers. The harem of Darius III reportedly consisted of his mother, his queen-wife, her children, over 300 concubines and nearly 500 household servants. However, it is a matter of debate if the Achaemenid court had a full harem culture, as women do not appear to have been fully secluded in the harem. The fact that women lived in separate quarters at

7384-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

7488-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

7592-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

7696-452: The middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is

7800-423: The military science of ancient China and created the military doctrine of asymmetrical warfare. According to it, an attack on the enemy should begin only after the enemy has no opportunity to either defend or counterattack. It was used in the wars in the era of the Warring States in ancient China (about 475–221 BC). Those combat combinations had specific names, descriptions and classifications. Sun Tzu's historicity

7904-479: The more primitive small-scale battles that many believe predominated in China during the 6th century BC. Against this, Sawyer argues that the teachings of Sun Wu were probably taught to succeeding generations in his family or a small school of disciples, which eventually included Sun Bin. These descendants or students may have revised or expanded upon certain points in the original text. Skeptics who identify issues with

8008-586: The notion of interdiction such as haram (forbidden), mahram (unmarriageable relative), ihram (a pilgrim's state of ritual consecration during the Hajj ) and al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf ("the noble sanctuary", which can refer to the Temple Mount or the sanctuary of Mecca ). In the Ottoman Turkish language , the harem, i.e., the part of the house reserved for women was called haremlik , while

8112-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

8216-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

8320-518: The practice of seclusion as a social ideal and one of the major factors that shaped the lives of women in the Mediterranean Middle East. For example, contemporaneous sources from the Byzantine Empire describe the social norms that governed women's lives. Women were not supposed to be seen in public. They were guarded by eunuchs and could only leave the home "veiled and suitably chaperoned." Some of these customs were borrowed from

8424-444: The queen consisted of the legal secondary wives, with the title bānūka ("Lady"). The third rank consisted of unmarried princesses as well as married princesses who lived with their own family, with the title duxçī (daughter). The fourth group of women in the harem were the royal slave concubines who were bought in slave markets, received as a gifts as tribute, or taken as prisoners of war. The concubines were trained to entertain

8528-469: The rule, which is illustrated by the fact that big harems – when they occurred – were abhorred by the public. According to Sasanian legend, of all the Persian kings, Khosrow II was the most extravagant in his hedonism. He searched his realm to find the most beautiful girls, and it was rumored that about 3,000 of them were kept in his harem. This practice was widely condemned by the public, who abhorred

8632-589: The second century BC, six major works have survived. During the much later Song dynasty , these six works were combined with a Tang text into a collection called the Seven Military Classics . As a central part of that compilation, The Art of War formed the foundations of orthodox military theory in early modern China. Illustrating this point, the book was required reading to pass the tests for imperial appointment to military positions. Sun Tzu's The Art of War uses language that may be unusual in

8736-430: The so-called hijab verse (33:53). In modern usage hijab colloquially refers to the religious attire worn by Muslim women, but in this verse, it meant "veil" or "curtain" that physically separates female from male space. Although classical commentators agreed that the verse spoke about a curtain separating the living quarters of Muhammad's wives from visitors to his house, they usually viewed this practice as providing

8840-453: The space open for men was known as selamlık . The practice of female seclusion is not exclusive to Islam, but the English word harem usually denotes the domestic space reserved for women in Muslim households. Some scholars have used the term to refer to polygynous royal households throughout history. Leila Ahmed describes the ideal of seclusion as "a man's right to keep his women concealed—invisible to other men." Ahmed identifies

8944-538: The strategies of the Chinese state and its leaders. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until

9048-488: The strings and keys of which were entrusted into the hands of that pitiable creature – the eunuch . As the size of the harem grew, men indulged to satiety. Satiety within the individual harem meant boredom for the one man and neglect for the many women. Under these conditions ... satisfaction by perverse and unnatural means crept into society, particularly in its upper classes. The marketing of human beings, particularly women, as objects for sexual use meant that elite men owned

9152-452: The strips in other works, however, such as The Methods of the Sima is considered proof of Sun Tzu's historical priority. According to Ralph Sawyer, it is very likely Sun Tzu did exist and not only served as a general, but also wrote the core of the book that bears his name. It is argued that there is a disparity between the large-scale wars and sophisticated techniques detailed in the text and

9256-547: The subsequent Warring States period , a time of constant war among seven ancient Chinese states— Zhao , Qi , Qin , Chu , Han , Wei , and Yan —who fought to control the vast expanse of fertile territory in Eastern China. One of the better-known stories about Sun Tzu, taken from Sima Qian, illustrates Sun Tzu's temperament as follows: Before hiring Sun Tzu, the King of Wu tested Sun Tzu's skills by commanding him to train

9360-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

9464-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

9568-518: The traditionalist view point to possible anachronisms in The Art of War including terms, technology (such as anachronistic crossbows ), philosophical ideas, events, and military techniques that should not have been available to Sun Wu. Additionally, there are no records of professional generals during the Spring and Autumn period ; these are only extant from the Warring States period , so there

9672-449: The twentieth century and bears the closest similarity to The Art of War of all surviving texts. Sun Tzu's Art of War has influenced many notable figures. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian recounted that China's first historical emperor , Qin 's Shi Huangdi , considered the book invaluable in ending the time of the Warring States . In the twentieth century, Mao Zedong partially credited his 1949 victory over Chiang Kai-shek and

9776-498: The twentieth century, The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in the Western world as well. It remains influential in many contemporary competitive endeavors across the modern world beyond military strategy and warfare, including espionage, culture, governance, business, and sports. The oldest available sources disagree as to where Sun Tzu was born. The Spring and Autumn Annals and Sima Qian 's later Records of

9880-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

9984-451: The vast majority of women they interacted with, and related to them as would masters to slaves. Being a slave meant relative lack of autonomy, and belonging to a harem caused a wife and her children to have little insurance of stability and continued support due to the volatile politics of harem life. Elite men expressed in literature the horror they felt for the humiliation and degradation of their daughters and female relatives. For example,

10088-603: The verses addressed to Hasan ibn al-Firat on the death of his daughter read: Courtesans and princesses produced prestigious and important poetry. Enough survives to give us access to women's historical experiences, and reveals some vivacious and powerful figures such as: the Sufi mystic Raabi'a al-Adwiyya (714–801 CE), the princess and poet 'Ulayya bint al-Mahdi (777–825 CE), the singing-girls Shāriyah ( c.  815 –70 CE), Fadl Ashsha'ira (d. 871 CE) and Arib al-Ma'muniyya (797–890 CE). The harem system that developed in

10192-456: The women and children of the pharaoh, including his mother, wives, and children, had their own living quarters with its own administration in the Palace of the Pharaoh, the royal women did not live isolated from contact with men or in seclusion from the rest of the court in the way associated with the term "harem". The custom of referring to the women's quarters of the pharaoh's palace as a "harem"

10296-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

10400-530: Was conquered by the Median Empire , which appears to have adopted the harem custom. Reportedly, the Median nobility each had five wives, and employed eunuchs (though these eunuchs may have been non-castrated officials). Female seclusion and a special part of the house reserved for women were common among the elites of ancient Greece, where it was known as the gynaeceum . However, while gender segregation

10504-439: Was considered inappropriate for men to attend to women's needs. At times women lent and invested money, and engaged in other commercial activities. Historical records shows that the women of 14th-century Mamluk Cairo freely visited public events alongside men, despite objections of religious scholars. Female seclusion has historically signaled social and economic prestige. Eventually, the norms of female seclusion spread beyond

10608-411: Was first published, translated, and distributed internationally. There are numerous theories concerning when the text was completed and concerning the identity of the author or authors, but archeological recoveries show The Art of War had taken roughly its current form by at least the early Han period. Because it is impossible to prove definitively when the Art of War was completed before this date,

10712-540: Was strangled by Moulay Ismail; Lalla Aisha Mubaraka, a later favorite, convinced him that Al-Darah had betrayed him; she wanted to secure the succession of her own son. According to the writings of the French diplomat Dominique Busnot , Moulay Ismail had at least 500 concubines and even more children. A total of 868 children (525 sons and 343 daughters) is recorded in 1703, with his seven-hundredth son being born shortly after his death in 1727, by which time he had well over

10816-753: Was the official ideal in Classical Athens, it is debated how much of this ideal was actually enforced, and it is known that even upper-class women appeared in public and were able to come in contact with men, at least on religious occasions. These traditional Greek ideals were revived as an ideal for women in the Byzantine Empire (in which Greek culture eventually became dominant), though the rigid idealistic norms of seclusion expressed in Byzantine literature did not necessarily reflect actual practice. The Byzantine Emperors were Greek Orthodox and did not have several wives, or official concubines, secluded in

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