The Book of War
Sun Tzu & Wu Tzu (trans. E. F. Calthrop) · 1908
5.0 · 4 ratings
About the book
The Art of War as it first reached English whole: Sun Tzu's thirteen articles and Wu Tzu's sayings, translated by a British artillery captain who died in the war he studied. Twenty-five centuries of strategy in an afternoon's reading.
Try the short course
Part 1 · Count before you fight. The first six slides, free.
1 / 6
Sun does not open with a trick. He opens with weight: war is a great matter for every nation, the thing on which the life or death of the state depends. Because the stakes are that high, it has to be studied, and studied before anyone moves.
Then he tells you where the studying happens. "At the reckoning in the Sanctuary before fighting, victory is to the side that excels." Before a single soldier marches, the ruler and his generals sit in the temple and count.
That is the claim the whole chapter rests on. The battle is not where the outcome is made; it is where the outcome shows up. In Sun's account, most of the winning is decided before anything moves, at a quiet table, by whoever does the arithmetic well.
Inside the course
12 parts- The preliminary reckoning: count before you fightFree above
- Operations of war: what campaigns cost
- The attack by stratagem — winning without battle
- The order of battle
Questions
Is The Book of War free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, French, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
12 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. The Book of War is waiting in the app’s library.
