Page:Sun Tzu on The art of war.djvu/52

   The following are the oldest Chinese treatises on war, after Sun Tzŭ. The notes on each have been drawn principally from the Ssŭ k‘u ch‘üan shu chien ming mu lu, ch. 9, fol. 22 sqq.

1. Wu Tzŭ, in 1 chüan or 6  chapters. By Wu Ch‘i (d. B.C. 381). A genuine work. See Shih Chi, ch. 65.

2. Ssŭ-ma Fa, in 1 chüan or 5 chapters. Wrongly attributed to Ssŭ-ma Jang-chü of the 6th century B.C. Its date, however, must be early, as the customs of the three ancient dynasties are constantly to be met with in its pages. See Shih Chi, ch. 64.

The Ssŭ K‘u Ch‘üan Shu (ch. 99, f. 1) remarks that the oldest three treatises on war, Sun Tzŭ, Wu Tzŭ and the Ssŭ-ma Fa, are, generally speaking, only concerned with things strictly military — the art of producing, collecting, training and drilling troops, and the correct theory with regard to measures of expediency, laying plans, transport of goods and the handling of soldiers — in strong contrast to later works, in which the science of war is usually blended with metaphysics, divination and magical arts in general.

3. Liu T‘ao, in 6 chüan or 60 chapters. Attributed to Lü Wang (or Lü Shang, also known as  T‘ai Kung) of the 12th century B.C. But