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44-452: The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction. Its focus on the use of cunning and deception both on the battlefield and in court have drawn comparisons to Sun Tzu's The Art of War . Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles , a late- Ming dynasty work that focuses on the realms of commerce and civil society, shares some thematic similarities. The name of

88-717: A body of knowledge or branch of learning, as in the art of medicine or the art of war . Although the arts are also skills, there are many skills that form an art but have no connection to the fine arts . People need a broad range of skills to contribute to the modern economy. A joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study showed that through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it. Three broad categories of skills are suggested: technical, human, and conceptual. The first two can be substituted with hard and soft skills, respectively. Hard skills, also called technical skills, are any skills relating to

132-401: A detailed explanation and analysis of the 5th-century BC Chinese military, from weapons, environmental conditions, and strategy to rank and discipline. Sun also stressed the importance of intelligence operatives and espionage to the war effort. Considered one of history's finest military tacticians and analysts, his teachings and strategies formed the basis of advanced military training throughout

176-658: A military unit's library. The Art of War is listed on the US Marine Corps Professional Reading Program (formerly known as the Commandant's Reading List). It is recommended reading for all United States Military Intelligence personnel. The Art of War is also used as instructional material at the United States Military Academy (commonly known as West Point), in the course Military Strategy (470). It

220-503: A mountain. The translator Samuel B. Griffith offers a chapter on "Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung" where The Art of War is cited as influencing Mao's On Guerrilla Warfare , On the Protracted War and Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War , and includes Mao's quote: "We must not belittle the saying in the book of Sun Wu Tzu, the great military expert of ancient China, 'Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight

264-475: A number of historical sources mention a military treatise he wrote. Unlike Sun Wu, 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 . In 1972, the Yinqueshan Han slips were discovered in two Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) tombs near

308-493: A preface, six chapters containing six stratagems each, and an incomplete afterword that was missing text. The first three chapters generally describe tactics for use in advantageous situations, while the last three chapters contain stratagems that are more suitable for disadvantageous situations. The original text of the Thirty-Six Stratagems has a laconic style that is common to Classical Chinese . Each proverb

352-435: A specialization. Epstein argues that many tasks require a variety of skills which tend to be possessed by more well-rounded people, and finding a task which is a better fit to one's personality and interests can overcome the advantage otherwise provided by having more practice earlier in life and attempting peak performance as a younger person. Someone who has demonstrated a high level of knowledge or skill in multiple disciplines

396-415: A specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. These skills are easily quantifiable unlike soft skills , which are related to one's personality. These are also skills that can be or have been tested and may entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification. Holistic competencies

440-533: A text on military matters was written by one "Sun Wu" ( 孫武 ) from the State of Qi , and that this text had been read and studied by King Helü of Wu ( r.  514–495 BC ). This text was traditionally identified with the received Master Sun's Art of War . The conventional view was that Sun Wu was a military theorist from the end of the Spring and Autumn period (776–471 BC) who fled his home state of Qi to

484-674: A thousand battles without disaster.'" During the Vietnam War , some Viet Cong officers extensively studied The Art of War and reportedly could recite entire passages from memory. General Võ Nguyên Giáp successfully implemented tactics described in The Art of War during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ending major French involvement in Indochina and leading to the accords which partitioned Vietnam into North and South. General Giáp, later

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528-460: Is (1) the ancient Chinese virtue of "martial, valiant" and (2) a Jianghuai dialectal synonym of 士 ; shì " knight ", which corresponds to Sunzi's role as the hero's doppelgänger in the story of Wu Zixu . In the early 20th century, the Chinese writer and reformer Liang Qichao theorized that the text was actually written in the 4th century BC by Sun Tzu's purported descendant Sun Bin , as

572-569: Is a direct translation of The Art of War into soccer language and scenarios. Playing To Win by David Sirlin analyses applications of the ideas from The Art of War in modern esports. The Art of War was released in 2014 as an e-book companion alongside the Art of War DLC for Europa Universalis IV , a PC strategy game by Paradox Development Studios , with a foreword by Thomas Johansson. The Art of War and Sun Tzu have been referenced and quoted in many movies and television shows, including in

616-580: Is accompanied by a short comment, no longer than a sentence or two, that explains how said proverb is applicable to military tactics. These 36 Chinese proverbs are related to 36 battle scenarios in Chinese history and folklore, predominantly of the Warring States period and the Three Kingdoms period . The Thirty-Six Stratagems consists of six chapters, with each chapter consisting of six stratagems. The Art of War The Art of War

660-664: Is also recommended reading for Officer cadets at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst . Some notable military leaders have stated the following about Sun Tzu and The Art of War : "I always kept a copy of The Art of War on my desk." – General Douglas MacArthur , 5 Star General and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers . "I have read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He continues to influence both soldiers & politicians." – General Colin Powell , Chairman of

704-403: Is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the late Spring and Autumn period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a different set of skills or art related to warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics . For almost 1,500 years, it

748-854: Is an umbrella term for different types of generic skills (e.g., critical thinking , problem-solving skills, positive values, and attitudes (e.g., resilience , appreciation for others) which are essential for life-long learning and whole-person development. Skilled workers have long had historical import ( see division of labour ) as electricians , masons , carpenters , blacksmiths , bakers , brewers , coopers , printers and other occupations that are economically productive. Skilled workers were often politically active through their craft guilds . An ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills). According to

792-403: Is called socialization . Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others. Development of a very high level of skill is often desirable for economic, social, or personal reasons. In his 2008 book Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell proposed

836-407: Is meant to denote "numerous stratagems" instead of any specific number. Wang's choice of this term came from the I Ching , where six is the number of yin that shared many characteristics with the dark schemes involved in military strategy. As thirty-six is the square of six, it therefore acted as a metaphor for "numerous strategies". Since Wang did not refer to any thirty-six specific stratagems,

880-401: Is now generally accepted that the earlier The Art of War was completed sometime between 500 and 430 BC. The Art of War is divided into 13 chapters (or piān ); the collection is referred to as being one zhuàn ("whole" or alternatively "chronicle"). Across East Asia , The Art of War was part of the syllabus for potential candidates of military service examinations. During

924-608: Is the true enemy, the only enemy". Captain Picard expressed pleasure that Sun Tzu was still taught at Starfleet Academy . Later in the episode, a survivor from a long-dead nonhuman empire noted common aspects between his own people's wisdom and The Art of War with regard to knowing when and when not to fight. The Art of War is a 2000 action spy film directed by Christian Duguay and starring Wesley Snipes , Michael Biehn , Anne Archer and Donald Sutherland . Art (skill) A skill may be called an art when it represents

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968-474: Is traditionally attributed to an ancient Chinese military general known as Sun Tzu ( pinyin : Sūnzǐ ), meaning 'Master Sun'. Sun Tzu is said to have lived in the 6th century BC, but the earliest parts of The Art of War probably date to at least 100 years later. Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , the first of China's 24 dynastic histories , records an early Chinese tradition that

1012-683: The Portland Business Journal , people skills are described as: A British definition is "the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way, especially in business." The term is already listed in major US dictionaries. The term people skills is used to include both psychological skills and social skills but is less inclusive than life skills . Social skills are any skills facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning such skills

1056-484: The Art of War . Cao's preface makes clear that he edited the text and removed certain passages, but the extent of his changes were unclear historically. The Art of War appears throughout the bibliographical catalogs of the Chinese dynastic histories, but listings of its divisions and size varied widely. Beginning around the 12th century, Sun Tzu's historical existence began to be questioned by Chinese scholars, primarily on

1100-541: The Sengoku period ( c.  1467–1568 ), the Japanese daimyō Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) is said to have become almost invincible in all battles without relying on guns , because he studied The Art of War . The book even gave him the inspiration for his famous battle standard " Fūrinkazan " (Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain), meaning fast as the wind, silent as a forest, ferocious as fire and immovable as

1144-479: The "10,000 hour rule", that world-class skill could be developed by practicing for 10,000 hours. This principle was disputed by other commentators, pointing out feedback is necessary for improvement, and that practice is no guarantee of success. In his 2019 book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , David Epstein argues that a period of sampling different activities (whether musical instruments, sports, or professions) can be helpful before choosing

1188-493: The "Sun Tzu" text, and the two may be "a single, continuously developing intellectual tradition united under the Sun name". This discovery showed that much of the historical confusion was due to the fact that there were two texts that could have been referred to as "Master Sun's Art of War", not one. The content of the earlier text is about one-third of the chapters of the modern The Art of War , and their text matches very closely. It

1232-605: The 1987 movie Wall Street , in which Gordon Gekko ( Michael Douglas ) frequently references it. The 20th James Bond film, Die Another Day (2002) also references The Art of War as the spiritual guide shared by Colonel Moon and his father. In The Sopranos , season 3, episode 8 ("He Is Risen"), Dr. Melfi suggests to Tony Soprano that he read the book. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation first-season episode "The Last Outpost", first officer William Riker quotes The Art of War : "Fear

1276-463: The Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong , Japanese daimyō Takeda Shingen , Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp , is cited along with American military generals Douglas MacArthur and Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. as having drawn inspiration from the book. Outside of military use, The Art of War has also become a source of inspiration in business, politics, sports and esports, and its usage has extended to film and television. The Art of War

1320-512: The Joint Chiefs of Staff , National Security Advisor , and Secretary of State . According to some authors, the strategy of deception from The Art of War was studied and widely used by the KGB : "I will force the enemy to take our strength for weakness, and our weakness for strength, and thus will turn his strength into weakness". The Art of War has been applied to many fields outside of

1364-458: The city of Linyi in Shandong . Among the many bamboo slip writings contained in the tombs, which had been sealed between 134 and 118 BC, respectively were two separate texts, one attributed to "Sun Tzu", corresponding to the received text, and another attributed to Sun Bin, which explains and expands upon the earlier The Art of War by Sunzi. The Sun Bin text's material overlaps with much of

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1408-578: The collection comes from the Book of Qi 's seventh biographical volume, Biography of Wang Jingze ( 王敬則傳 ). Wáng was a general who had served Southern Qi since the first Emperor Gao of the dynasty. When Emperor Ming came to power and executed many members of the court and royal family for fear that they would threaten his reign, Wang believed that he would be targeted next and rebelled. As Wang received news that Xiao Baojuan , son and crown prince of Emperor Ming, had escaped in haste after learning of

1452-401: The field of education. The Art of War has been the subject of legal books and legal articles on the trial process, including negotiation tactics and trial strategy. The book The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene employs philosophies covered in The Art of War . The Art of War has also been applied in sports. National Football League coach Bill Belichick , record holder of

1496-507: 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 the Records of the Grand Historian , and has been suspected to be a made-up descriptive cognomen meaning "the fugitive warrior", glossing the surname "Sun" as the related term "fugitive" ( xùn 遜 ), while "Wu" ( wǔ 武 )

1540-530: The late Ming dynasty . Many business books have applied the lessons taken from the book to office politics and corporate business strategy. Many Japanese companies make the book required reading for their key executives . The book is also popular among Western business circles citing its utilitarian values regarding management practices . Many entrepreneurs and corporate executives have turned to it for inspiration and advice on how to succeed in competitive business situations. The book has also been applied to

1584-647: The main PVA military commander in the Vietnam War, was an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu's ideas. The United States' defeat in the Vietnam War, more than any other event, brought Sun Tzu to the attention of leaders of U.S. military theory. The Department of the Army in the United States, through its Command and General Staff College , lists The Art of War as one example of a book that may be kept at

1628-498: The military. Much of the text is about how to outsmart one's opponent without actually having to engage in physical battle. As such, it has found application as a training guide for many competitive endeavors that do not involve actual combat. The Art of War is mentioned as an influence in the earliest known Chinese collection of stories about fraud (mostly in the realm of commerce), Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles ( Du pian xin shu , 杜騙新書 , c.  1617 ), which dates to

1672-404: The most Super Bowl wins in history, has stated on multiple occasions his admiration for The Art of War . Brazilian association football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari actively used The Art of War for Brazil's successful 2002 World Cup campaign. During the tournament Scolari put passages of The Art of War underneath his players' doors at night. The book Sun Tzu Soccer by Liam Shannon

1716-482: The rebellion, he commented that "of the thirty-six stratagems of Lord Tán, retreat was his best, you father and son should run for sure." "Lord Tán" refers to general Tan Daoji of the Liu Song dynasty , who was forced to retreat after his failed attack on Northern Wei , and Wang mentioned his name in contempt as an example of cowardice. The number thirty-six was used by Wang as a figure of speech in this context, and

1760-463: The southeastern Kingdom of Wu , where he is said to have impressed the king with his ability to quickly train even court women in military discipline and to have made Wu's armies powerful enough to challenge their western rivals in the state of Chu . This view is still widely held in China. The strategist, poet, and warlord Cao Cao in the early 3rd century AD authored the earliest known commentary to

1804-446: The thirty-six proverbs and their connection to military strategies and tactics are likely to have been created after the fact, with only the collection's name being attributed to Wang. The prevailing view is that contents of the Thirty-Six Stratagems originated in both written and oral history. Some stratagems reference occurrences in the time of Sun Bin , approximately 150 years after Sun Tzu's death. The original hand-copied paperback

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1848-481: The world. The book was translated into French and published in 1772 by the French priest Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot ; it was re-published in 1782. A partial translation into English was attempted by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905 under the title The Book of War . The first annotated English translation was completed and published by Lionel Giles in 1910. Military and political leaders such as

1892-522: Was believed to have been discovered in China's Shaanxi province, of an unknown date and author, and put into print by a local publisher in 1941. The Thirty-Six Stratagems came to the public's attention after a review of it was published in the Chinese Communist Party's Guangming Daily newspaper on September 16, 1961. It was subsequently reprinted and distributed with growing popularity. The Thirty-Six Stratagems are divided into

1936-612: Was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080. The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare, has influenced both East Asian and Western military theory and thinking, and has found a variety of applications in myriad competitive non-military endeavors across the modern world including espionage, culture, politics, business, and sports. The book contains

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