What do you think?
Rate this book
Strategies of the Warring States: Zhan Guo Ce 战国策
The Zhan Guo Ce, also known in English as the Strategies of the Warring States, is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political manipulation and warfare during the Warring States period (5th to 3rd centuries bc).[1] It is an important text of the Warring States Period as it describes the strategies and political views of the School of Diplomacy and reveals the historical and social characteristics of the period.
The Zhan Guo Ce recounts the history of the Warring States from the conquest of the Fan clan by the Zhi clan in 490 BC up to the failed assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Gao Jianli in 221 BC.
The chapters take the form of anecdotes meant to illustrate various strategies and tricks employed by the Warring States. With the focus thus being more on providing general political insights than on presenting the whole history of the period, there is no stringent year-by-year dating such as that found in the preceding Spring and Autumn Annals. Stories are sorted chronologically by under which ruler they take place, but within the reign of a single king there is no way to tell if the time elapsed between two anecdotes is a day or a year.
The book comprises approximately 120,000 words, and is divided into 33 chapters and 497 sections.
The Zhan Guo Ce recounts the history of the Warring States from the conquest of the Fan clan by the Zhi clan in 490 BC up to the failed assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Gao Jianli in 221 BC.
The chapters take the form of anecdotes meant to illustrate various strategies and tricks employed by the Warring States. With the focus thus being more on providing general political insights than on presenting the whole history of the period, there is no stringent year-by-year dating such as that found in the preceding Spring and Autumn Annals. Stories are sorted chronologically by under which ruler they take place, but within the reign of a single king there is no way to tell if the time elapsed between two anecdotes is a day or a year.
The book comprises approximately 120,000 words, and is divided into 33 chapters and 497 sections.
- GenresChinaHistoryNonfiction
537 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 22, 2014
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 5, 2025
One more half-star for the footnotes on the many personalities in this new version of the translation, which believe me, we need. So 2.5 stars.
This translation was shopped around earlier in a much more problematic version. I was reading portions of the translation on-line in comparison with the Chinese text (for the Chinese, I was using the Zhiyang Chuban She edition, Taiwan, 2003). Be it noted, I have only gotten through about 20% of the Chinese text. I agree with Warren, there are problems with this English version, but this 2024 version is much improved.
In the case of this work, as often happens with non-English classics, we have to separate the edition and particular scholarship/commentary (if any) from the original work. As far as the Strategies of the Warring States (compiled during the Han dynasty, but covering stories from the period 490-221 BCE) goes, this is a fundamental classic in Chinese literature, relating anecdotes of statecraft and adventures of for the most part real figures (as far as we know) in the periods before the unification of China under Chin Shihuang (221 BCE). These anecdotes are fascinating, shed light on the prevalence of various schools of thought in the Warring States period (Confucian, etc.), and many of the stories are retold even now in China in various fora.
To this day, we really don't have a "go to" translation of the ZGC in English, and this edition doesn't quite get us there either. Having said that, this subject matter is difficult (even reading it in English). And let me add, in reading these anecdotes--whether in Chinese or English--you need a map handy showing which states were where.
Students of Chinese classics will be grateful to have even this version. If Warren and others point out particular flaws and errors, such notes help us all going forward.
Enjoy--with a map.
This translation was shopped around earlier in a much more problematic version. I was reading portions of the translation on-line in comparison with the Chinese text (for the Chinese, I was using the Zhiyang Chuban She edition, Taiwan, 2003). Be it noted, I have only gotten through about 20% of the Chinese text. I agree with Warren, there are problems with this English version, but this 2024 version is much improved.
In the case of this work, as often happens with non-English classics, we have to separate the edition and particular scholarship/commentary (if any) from the original work. As far as the Strategies of the Warring States (compiled during the Han dynasty, but covering stories from the period 490-221 BCE) goes, this is a fundamental classic in Chinese literature, relating anecdotes of statecraft and adventures of for the most part real figures (as far as we know) in the periods before the unification of China under Chin Shihuang (221 BCE). These anecdotes are fascinating, shed light on the prevalence of various schools of thought in the Warring States period (Confucian, etc.), and many of the stories are retold even now in China in various fora.
To this day, we really don't have a "go to" translation of the ZGC in English, and this edition doesn't quite get us there either. Having said that, this subject matter is difficult (even reading it in English). And let me add, in reading these anecdotes--whether in Chinese or English--you need a map handy showing which states were where.
Students of Chinese classics will be grateful to have even this version. If Warren and others point out particular flaws and errors, such notes help us all going forward.
Enjoy--with a map.
Want to Read
May 4, 2021Not a perfect translation, with some place-names and "common" phrases un-translated, one entire "chapter" un-translated (but Google Translate was sufficient for this), and some repeated-character errors (apparently from machine translation software glitches). In addition, some of the phrases are awkward, but accurate, such as "long wife" and "short wife" to indicate the length of time those women were married to the man. But, despite this, it is a complete translation of an otherwise hard-to-find text, and for this I am grateful.
In case you are not familiar with it, these are a series of (unrelated) anecdotes about how philosophical ministers would travel from state to state to manipulate the lords with wisdom. It is fascinating reading.
In case you are not familiar with it, these are a series of (unrelated) anecdotes about how philosophical ministers would travel from state to state to manipulate the lords with wisdom. It is fascinating reading.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews