Philology Research On The Art Of War

Sun Tzu's the Art of War is a military classic which is praised as "the ancestor of written works talking about military for hundreds of generations". Not only has it influenced China for more than2500years, but also it is one of the most famous and influential China's Classics in the world. From time immemorial there are an immense number of books and articles about the Art of War. There are many discussions and many different opinions which argue back and forth and cannot agree on the classic, especially about the philology of it.As the solution of any historical doubtful cases, no doubt old data and old method are needed, new depth and perspectives are indispensable, and new data are absolutely necessarily.The bamboo slips excavated from ancient tombs of the Han Dynasty in Yinque Mountain of The Art of War, unearthed in Yinque Mountain, Linyi, Shandong in1972, dated back to2nd century BC. and the bamboo slips excavated from ancient tombs of the Han Dynasty in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong, Qinhai in1978, give us new data to discuss this problem. The current scholars have has gained notable achievement by using the new data, but many problems are still controversial,Take the problem of writing of the Art of War as an example. Both the Shiji and the Spring and Autumn Annals record that the Art of War was created by Sun Tzu, who was active in Wu around the end of the sixth century BC, is the writer of the Art of War of current version which is composed of13chapters. The Book of Han bibliographical notation of a work called the Art of War of Wu country composed of82sections that were attributed to Sun Tzu. In fact, the Art of War of82sections is composed Sun Tzu's Classics of13chapters and the commentary chapters of69chapters (the69chapters including the biography of the writer, and the interpretative words of the classics and something related to it), but many scholars don't know it. and also due to other factors, many of them are believe the Art of War is a pseudograph, and was created in the late Warring States period or in Han Dynasty. After the excavating of The Art of War of the bamboo slips version, many scholars began to believe that the recording in of the Shiji and the Spring, and Autumn Annals, has been fully proved, but the bamboo slips version keeps two allusions, one is "the rise of the certain country was due to□lu Shibi who had served as a spy under the Xing"([(?)之兴也],(?)(?)师比在陘)with an unknown age, the other one is " the rise of Yan was due to Su Qin who served as a spy under Qi " with a evident Warring States period evidence, and some scholars called the latter one is the "ironclad proof" of the warring age.The writer of this dissertation has been researching the Art of War for more than10years, noticing the treatise and papers, and owning the point of his own, and will research the Art of War based on the former scholars and the new data, and there are something new as follows:The first part of this dissertation researches on the writing of the Art of War. Influenced by the point of view that the Art of War is a pseudograph, many people believes that the Xenophon (Ξενοφων) is the earliest military treatise which was created after394BC. The problem of the writing of The Art of War is very complex and hard to be solved, then we must discuss it at length. With a carefully hackling and textual studying, the writer finds that the unknown allusion is " the rise of the Chu country was due to Xionglu Shibi who had served as a spy under the Sui"([楚之兴也],熊(?)師比在(?)), and it happened in Chuwu King era(740BC to690BC), far before the era of Sun Tzu, and apparently there is no evidence of the book was created in Warring period. When the writer researched on the other allusion, and he found a clear and distinguishable signal "·" before" the rise of Yan was due to Su Qin who served as a spy under Qi ", and the signal often means that the sentence(s) below is the interpretative words, and this phenomenon can be found in the Yinque bamboo slips and the other bamboo slips literature, too. So the sentence related to Su Qin isn't the writing of Sun Tzu, and can't be used to prove that the Art of War is a warring era creation. From the inner of the Art of War, we can conclude that it is a creation of the late Spring and Autumn period from the kinds of military troops, the size of the force, the time of a war needed, the history of Wu and Yue, the military thinking future, and so on. From the outer of the book, the writer of this dissertation believes the conclusion, too. The chapter of Condemnation of Offensive War III in Mozi, which was created before400BC has already quoted the Art of War. The chapter of Wuwen has been created late than the Art of War, and it is true literature, and its lower reliable limit is408BC even if it was a pseudograph. Current Tso Chuan, the commentary of Spring and Autumn classics, which does not record Sun Tzu, may because of the missing of it, or because of the writer didn't think it was necessary to interpret the classics of Spring and Autumn. Shiji recorded the Sun Tzu with an exact time, may copy from one of the ancient version of certain commentary of Spring and Autumn, or from the history book of certain country, and it is reliable. Our point of view about the Art of War accords with the general law of Chinese ancient book.The second part of this dissertation mainly researches on the text of the Art of War. The writer of this dissertation interpret the text from the perspective of paleography, phonology and exegetics, and research on the commentary and classics of the Art of War, and on the "lost work" of the Art of War, and try to conclude some universal law of the ancient book.The current scholars have two extreme attitudes toward the bamboo slips version The Art of War found in Yinque Mountain:one is gaze at it without seeing; the other is blindly praise, may all not attitude of seeking truth from facts.By carefully investigation, especially by contrast between the ancient literature transmitted to now and the unearthed literature, the writer found particular sentences and words, especially the wrong one in the bamboo slips version can be sought out in the classified books in ancient in Tang and Song dynasties, and concludes that the bamboo slips system version of the Art of War was handed down before and lost in the era. In contrast to the version transmitted to now, the unearthed version have its advantages and disadvantages, and this two aspects are all great, and the great advantages and great disadvantages are all unique, the obvious mistakes are not advisable, but something obvious excellent must be accept. So it is seem every version of ancient book cannot be ignored, we must know its advantages and its disadvantages,"stand in awe of others and yet love them, love others and yet know the evil that is in them", and should not totally repudiate a version nor entirely affirm a version.Most content of the Han bamboo slips of Shangsunjiazhai is closely related to tactical arrays or military laws, none of scholars think the continent of these kinds is the Art of War so far, but the writer found that it is the same as or similar to the Sun Tzu's the Recycling Overcoming of Eight-Tactical Arrays practice methods and theory, and decides it is may the part of the Art of War of Wu country in the Book of Han bibliographical notation composed of82sections except the13chapter classics. The military laws in the Shangsunjiazhai bamboo slips can be found in Cao Cao's Wuhou Military Law and the military law of many dynasties, it may the result of Cao and later generations who copied from Sun Tzu, in other words, it is the commentary of the Art of War classics.The peculiar sentences of the bamboo slips version of the Art of War is preserved of Tang and Song dynasties, and the Sun Tzu's Eight-Tactical Arrays sentence text in the Shangsunjiazhai bamboo slips preserved in the Essentials of Military Principles, and the Sun Tzu's military law is preserved in Cao Cao's Wuhou Military Law. The phenomenon of his kinds of may be all looked as the examples of "there are books which have been lost but they are not real lost'By dissecting two kinds of early literature of the Art of War, we can conclude that the common law of ancient book summarized by Yu Jiaxi, and the common law of the doubtful problems summarized by Yu Yue etc. are all applicable to the bamboo-slips literature, only one difference can be found is that the ancient literature transmitted to now uses "O" as a signal of interpret words, the bamboo-slips version uses "·" as the same signal.After Bi Yixun in Qing dynasty, there are many scholars devote themselves to gathering of scattered writings of the Art of War, and get notable results, and after the carefully study, the writer find some of them aren't correct, and some of them are commentary of the Art of War classics, including explain the words and sentences, develop main point main theme, other things have certain relationships to it. In the ancient era, the name of commentary may be often called the name of the classics, then it may be called "the lost work of the Art of War", but from a point of current view, it may be properly called "the lost work of the commentary on the Art of War" There are few differences between the current version of the13chapters of the Art of War and the bamboo scroll version, and the13chapters is the classics of Sun Tzu's original manuscript, and besides this, may all the commentary of the classics may be written by the successors.According to the careful study and research of the writing of the Art of War, and the bamboo scroll version of the book, and the Shangsunjiazhai bamboo slips, we can know the complex processes of the development of the book, and the writer of this dissertation gives a clear map of it called the Versions Development of the Art of War at last.In addition, this study also completes catalogue for Studies in the Art of War by Sun Tzu overseas, which can provide information about the relevant study in26languages, and introduce the a general survey of the literatures on in foreign languages.