Sun Tzu and The Art of War

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2018

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496BC, according to tradition), a legendary figure from the beginning of the Iron Age in China, around the time of Confucius. He may have been the historical figure Sun Wu, a military adviser at the court of King Helu of Wu (who reigned between about 514 and 496 BC), one of the kings in power in the Warring States period of Chinese history (6th - 5th century BC). Sun Tzu was credited as the author of The Art of War, a work on military strategy that soon became influential in China and then Japan both for its guidance on conducting and avoiding war and for its approach to strategy generally. After The Art of War was translated into European languages in C18th, its influence spread to military academies around the world. The image above is of a terracotta warrior from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor, who unified China after the Warring States period. With Hilde De Weerdt Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University Tim Barrett Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London And Imre Galambos Reader in Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:44.6	programs. Hello quote the art of war is vital to the state a road either to safety or
0:50.8	to ruin and quote so begins one of the great works of strategy, in particular military strategy,
0:57.0	written two and a half thousand years ago in China.
1:00.0	According to legend, the author of the art of war was Sun Tzu,
1:04.3	reputedly a general or advisor for the King of Wu in the 6th century BC
1:08.6	near the start of 300 years of war that ended with the first Emperor he of the
1:13.4	Tarracotta Army fame. The work was embellished for another
1:16.7	thousand years and studied not so much for the directions it gave but for the
1:20.0	state of mind it encouraged and it influenced leaders from the American Civil War
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