There is a delicate balance that must be struck between fidelity to the original, and the need to convey ideas into another medium in a way that sounds lucid. As reviewer Quintus Curtius wrote in 2015, And translating from Chinese is fraught with complexities that do not appear when translating, say, a Romance language (a single Chinese character can represent more than one word, idea, or sound). As IРІР‚в„ўve written before, translation is both an interpretive art and a linguistic activity. Like many Chinese classics, Western appreciation and understanding of Sun TzuРІР‚в„ўs The Art of War have suffered from the problems inherent in translation as well as cultural differences (not least of which that it was written more than two millennia agoРІР‚В¦).

It was likely started by a student or a clerk writing down the masterРІР‚в„ўs words, and others adding to and embellishing them. There may not actually be a single author: the book is likely a composite, created over decades or even centuries by many authors contributing and updating the core. The word tzu (or tzi or zi) means master, as in Lao Tzu. And, very much like The Prince, itРІР‚в„ўs one of the most often-quoted and referred-to of unread books, sometimes reduced to a handful of bumper-sticker epithets and misquotes by the literati and ignorati alike. ItРІР‚в„ўs a short book: a mere 13 chapters written in generally brief aphorisms. And, like MachiavelliРІР‚в„ўs The Prince, it has often been misused, misunderstood, and misinterpreted for those purposes. It has been used as a model of strategy and leadership for the military, for business, romance, sports, and for politics. So wise that his famous treatise, The Art of War (aka The Art of Warfare), has been read, written about, critiqued, and discussed for roughly 2,400 years.

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