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The Art Of War
The Art of War written by Sun Zi (Sun Tzu) more than 2,300 years ago was perhaps one of the earliest military treatises.
Succinctly written in 13 chapters, it provides a compact set of principles essential for victory in battles, which are relevamt to today's military strategies and applicable even in business and humn relationships.
Tsia Chih Chung, popular Taiwanese cartoonist, has illustrated this military classic into comics, thus making it fun and entertaining to read.
Succinctly written in 13 chapters, it provides a compact set of principles essential for victory in battles, which are relevamt to today's military strategies and applicable even in business and humn relationships.
Tsia Chih Chung, popular Taiwanese cartoonist, has illustrated this military classic into comics, thus making it fun and entertaining to read.
125 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1991
16 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Tsai Chih Chung
122 books56 followersTsai Chih Chung (蔡志忠) is a world-renowned cartoonist and popularizer of Chinese classics whose books have sold more than 40 millions copies worldwide. He first came to prominence through his award-winning animated movies and his immensely popular daily comic strips. When he turned his hand to the classics after a prolonged period of self-education, they were acclaimed by critics and shot to the top of the bestsellers lists.
Starting from the 1980s, Tsai created a series of Chinese comic books on ancient Chinese classics, like huangzi Speaks: The Music of Nature, Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness, Confucius Speaks: Words to Live by, Sunzi Speaks: The Art of War, and The Tao Speaks: Lao Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi are widely credited as sages whose thoughts have played an important role in China's development. Tsai put his unique understanding and feelings of ancient thoughts into his cartoons, and added a modern interpretation of them, making boring ancient philosophies quite amusing as well as understandable. His works won a large number of adult readers for comic books, a market predominantly children-targeted. This series of comic books has hoarded great applause from readers both in Taiwan and Chinese mainland, with 4 million copies sold in Taiwan.
Differing from most Chinese parents, Tsai has a unique way of bringing up his daughter, stressing independence and self-reliance. His daughter even traveled to Japan by herself at the age of 12.With the influence of her father, his daughter has also become fond of cartoons. Her creativity and originality is comparable to that of her father, and many of her cartoons have been published as well. Tsai once made a comparison between human beings and wolves, stating that a parent wolf never teaches its children the necessary skills of survival, leaving the child with the challenge of acquired these skills on their own.
Starting from the 1980s, Tsai created a series of Chinese comic books on ancient Chinese classics, like huangzi Speaks: The Music of Nature, Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness, Confucius Speaks: Words to Live by, Sunzi Speaks: The Art of War, and The Tao Speaks: Lao Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi are widely credited as sages whose thoughts have played an important role in China's development. Tsai put his unique understanding and feelings of ancient thoughts into his cartoons, and added a modern interpretation of them, making boring ancient philosophies quite amusing as well as understandable. His works won a large number of adult readers for comic books, a market predominantly children-targeted. This series of comic books has hoarded great applause from readers both in Taiwan and Chinese mainland, with 4 million copies sold in Taiwan.
Differing from most Chinese parents, Tsai has a unique way of bringing up his daughter, stressing independence and self-reliance. His daughter even traveled to Japan by herself at the age of 12.With the influence of her father, his daughter has also become fond of cartoons. Her creativity and originality is comparable to that of her father, and many of her cartoons have been published as well. Tsai once made a comparison between human beings and wolves, stating that a parent wolf never teaches its children the necessary skills of survival, leaving the child with the challenge of acquired these skills on their own.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 28, 2019
The world has paced too long to pass the fastest time of all the time. It's not the big events, it's not the stunning reign of any kingdom rather it's the time for people to experience the busiest lifestyle. It's us, public! Having no time! Modern era!
So many books, so little time to read. So, as soon as I got the illustrated version I grabbed it. But to go through the whole book I've spent 2 weeks+. How thoughtful strategies are they!
This book made me rethink about any kinda war, any kinda meetings too! Gameplans!
The single line I can make out of the reading is, Inequality must be created between the two sides. That's how only one side wins.
Wars only seem physical because we see it in the outrageous time. The facts working behind the actions eclipse the techniques. Really it's more of heart than the arms, and the far more of the brain than the heart! Leadership includes both cleverness and intelligence; though these two are not totally same, but demanded in the same person.
What really politics is and how the power of politics can act— is farmed from The Art of War. The shorter the time is, the more illustrated books are to crave.
So many books, so little time to read. So, as soon as I got the illustrated version I grabbed it. But to go through the whole book I've spent 2 weeks+. How thoughtful strategies are they!
This book made me rethink about any kinda war, any kinda meetings too! Gameplans!
The single line I can make out of the reading is, Inequality must be created between the two sides. That's how only one side wins.
Wars only seem physical because we see it in the outrageous time. The facts working behind the actions eclipse the techniques. Really it's more of heart than the arms, and the far more of the brain than the heart! Leadership includes both cleverness and intelligence; though these two are not totally same, but demanded in the same person.
What really politics is and how the power of politics can act— is farmed from The Art of War. The shorter the time is, the more illustrated books are to crave.
January 29, 2021
A nice translation!
March 26, 2025
Explains many obvious-sounding yet insightful tactics for war that are rooted in Chinese practical tradition. It’s pretty clear why this book has continued to be so popular in the modern world, and many of the lessons are applicable to modern problems that we all face.
The illustrations are brilliant and make the book incredibly easy to follow. I struggled with the dryness of the original, and this edition enabled me to follow the story while preserving the integrity of the lessons Sun Tzu introduced.
I’m going to attempt to summarize:
To win a war, you must attack only when necessary or when you are certain of victory. Maintain a strong defense at all times. Protect your supply lines at all costs, but pillage the enemy’s supplies whenever you can. Know the terrain and how it affects your position and the enemies, have reliable spies scattered in all levels of the enemy’s nation, be able to command your troops to move as one unit.
In short, war is not won on whims and ignorant charges without strategy. You must understand and wield strategy to win.
The illustrations are brilliant and make the book incredibly easy to follow. I struggled with the dryness of the original, and this edition enabled me to follow the story while preserving the integrity of the lessons Sun Tzu introduced.
I’m going to attempt to summarize:
To win a war, you must attack only when necessary or when you are certain of victory. Maintain a strong defense at all times. Protect your supply lines at all costs, but pillage the enemy’s supplies whenever you can. Know the terrain and how it affects your position and the enemies, have reliable spies scattered in all levels of the enemy’s nation, be able to command your troops to move as one unit.
In short, war is not won on whims and ignorant charges without strategy. You must understand and wield strategy to win.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2024
Take any great non-fiction book, and its graphic illustrations would require multiplying the number of pages to convey the same message as written text. But recall how short the regular translation of this text is (60 pages), which allows this book to remain conveniently sized despite the cartoon illustrations. More importantly, it effectively uses its format to illustrate key ideas while enhancing the reader's intuition about the context.
The introduction by translator Brian Bruya is excellent, providing readers with a general overview of the history of Chinese philosophy and its relation to war, while highlighting the differences from Western culture. Is war a political tool, or is it a result of lack of quality in politics?
Overall, this is a very entertaining piece. Have this in your self, and you won't need a traditional text version. While I do not expect to read any more cartoon books, this one was definitely worth the experience.
The introduction by translator Brian Bruya is excellent, providing readers with a general overview of the history of Chinese philosophy and its relation to war, while highlighting the differences from Western culture. Is war a political tool, or is it a result of lack of quality in politics?
Overall, this is a very entertaining piece. Have this in your self, and you won't need a traditional text version. While I do not expect to read any more cartoon books, this one was definitely worth the experience.
March 26, 2025
great book + fun visuals.
a commander must know the environment, know when to attack, know when not to attack, know how to attack, know when and how to be flexible, know the terrain.
a commander must understand the enemy, understand the positions one is in relation to the enemy, understand the circumstances, understand the cost of waging war, understand the main causes of defeat.
a commander must learn from water, fire, mountain, wind, clouds, thunder, ground, trees, serpent, lions, hawks, horses, sun, moon.
the depth of military strategy is fascinating!
a commander must know the environment, know when to attack, know when not to attack, know how to attack, know when and how to be flexible, know the terrain.
a commander must understand the enemy, understand the positions one is in relation to the enemy, understand the circumstances, understand the cost of waging war, understand the main causes of defeat.
a commander must learn from water, fire, mountain, wind, clouds, thunder, ground, trees, serpent, lions, hawks, horses, sun, moon.
the depth of military strategy is fascinating!
October 15, 2020
Aquilo que mais interessante achei sobre este livro é o facto de ainda hoje se dar tanta atenção a estas orientações para quem se veja envolvido num conflito e dele pretenda sair vitorioso. Não é por acaso que, para lá dos círculos militares, A Arte da guerra seja lida nos meios políticos, mas acima de tudo, empresariais. Um livro sobre estratégia que circula há mais de 2400 anos e do qual se continuam a tirar lições!
February 14, 2023
Uma adaptação simples do clássico chinês. Desenhos bem conseguidos e mensagens assertivas como regras. Uma boa forma de conhecer o livro e a filosofia da guerra.
September 24, 2022
This is quite entertaining and very easy to understand.
May 15, 2022
A re-read of an illustrated translation I believe I read in the 1990s. Charming illustrations and what I can only imagine to be a decent translation, never having grappled with the original. However, I believe the Art of War to be inferior, at least in terms of entertainment value, and maybe even in war advice (!) to the 36 Stratagems, which has an illustrated translation by Wang Xuanming that I remember very much enjoying and re-reading several times.
November 15, 2018
A great visual representation of the classic
July 7, 2016
Finally finished this brilliant book. :)
May 25, 2018
Fascinating read. This is an English translated comic book version of The Art of War. Much of the information has been simplified. The only thing I disliked was that the original was written 5th century BC, and therefore the portrayal of women is not pretty.
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April 3, 2019Read it not only for the content but also the graphics. In the preface, the author notes how 武 is the combo of 止 and 戈. How did I not notice how antithetical that was when I learned it?
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews