The Art of War

For more than 2,000 years, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advice on battlefield tactics, managing troops and terrain, and employing cunning and deception. Thomas Cleary’s translation has been a gold standard among English translations for over three decades, offering the complete text in eminently readable prose.

This Shambhala Library edition presents the full text with short commentaries by other ancient Chinese strategists and philosophers interwoven throughout, providing context and elaboration on Sun Tzu’s concise maxims. The work has influenced not only military strategy but also business practices, personal development, and competitive thinking across Eastern and Western cultures.

The supreme art of war, Sun Tzu wrote, is to subdue the enemy without fighting. His insights on strategy, leadership, deception, and adaptation remain as relevant today as they were when compiled approximately 2,500 years ago. Dr. Thomas Cleary (1949-2021) earned a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and is the translator of over seventy volumes of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Islamic texts.