SOURCE: Ames, Roger T. Introduction to The Art of Warfare: The First English Translation Incorporating the Recently Discovered Yin-Ch'üeh-Shan Texts, translated by Roger T. Ames, pp. 3-35. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

In the following excerpt, Ames traces the complex manuscript history of The Art of War.

The “new” Sun-tzu

The Sun-tzu, or “Master Sun,” is the longest existing and most widely studied military classic in human history. Quite appropriately, it dates back to the Warring States period (c. 403-221 b.c.), a formative phase in Chinese civilization when contributions in literature and philosophy were rivaled in magnitude and sophistication only by developments in an increasingly efficient military culture.

Over the course of the preceding Spring and Autumn period (c. 722-481 b.c.), scores of small, semiautonomous states had joined in an ongoing war of survival, leaving in its wake only the dozen or so “central states” (chung-kuo...