Name: The Art of War
Author: Sun Tzu

The golden nuggets

Before any contest, score it on five constant factors: shared purpose, timing, ground, leadership, and discipline.

Chapter 1 ('Laying Plans') says the general who makes many calculations before the battle wins it. Most outcomes are settled in this honest audit, before anyone moves.

All warfare is based on deception.

When able to attack, seem unable; when near, seem far (Ch. 1). Fights are decided as much by what the other side wrongly believes as by force.

The supreme excellence is breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

His ranked order (Ch. 3): balk the enemy's plans first, then prevent his alliances from joining, then fight his army. Besieging a walled city is the worst policy of all.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

The full line (Ch. 3) is harder than the famous half: know only one side and your chances are even; know neither 'and you will succumb in every battle.'

First put yourself beyond the possibility of defeat. Then wait for the enemy's mistake.

Securing yourself lies in your own hands; the chance to win is provided by the enemy (Ch. 4). The victorious strategist seeks battle only after the victory is already won.

Avoid what is strong, strike at what is weak - and keep no fixed form.

Water shapes its course by the ground and rushes to the low places (Ch. 6). Just as water retains no constant shape, in warfare there are no constant conditions.

Impose your will on the enemy. Never let him impose his on you.

Appear at points he must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places where you are not expected (Ch. 6). An enemy who must prepare in every place is weak in every place.

No country has ever benefited from prolonged warfare.

A field army costs a thousand ounces of silver a day (Ch. 2), so win quickly and feed on the enemy's stores: one cartload of his provisions is worth twenty of your own.

Never fight out of anger, pride, or spite.

Chapter 12 ends the fire chapter on this: anger may turn back to gladness, but 'a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being.' Move only when there is advantage.

When you surround an enemy, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

A cornered enemy fights to the death (Ch. 7). Chapter 11 runs the same law in reverse: your own soldiers fight hardest when there is no escape.

Some orders from above must not be obeyed.

Chapter 8 lists them flatly: certain roads not to follow, armies not to attack, towns not to besiege - and 'commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.' The commander on the ground carries the call.

Foreknowledge cannot be drawn from spirits, experience, or calculation. It can only be obtained from people.

The whole final chapter is spies (Ch. 13): no one in the army should be more liberally rewarded. Real intelligence is the cheapest edge there is.

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The book, in short

The Art of War is a short ancient Chinese treatise on war: thirteen brief chapters of numbered sayings, traditionally attributed to Sun Wu ('Master Sun,' Sun Tzu), a general said to have served the king of Wu in China some 2,500 years ago. Scholars still debate the man and the date - the traditional placing is the late Spring and Autumn period, roughly the 5th century BCE, and some argue the text took shape later, during the Warring States period. Its standing is not debated: for about 1,500 years it stood at the head of China's Seven Military Classics, and generals, founders, and negotiators still read it.

It opens with calculation. War, says Chapter 1, is 'a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin,' so before any move the general weighs five constant factors - the Moral Law (a purpose ruler and people share), Heaven (seasons, weather, time), Earth (distances and terrain), the Commander, and Method and discipline - and compares his own side against the enemy's, point by point. Most of the famous lines that follow serve that one habit: an honest audit, done in advance.