The Text of Sun Tzu

The Text of Sun Tzu

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I have found it difficult to glean much about the history of

Sun Tzu's text. The quotations that occur in early authors go to

show that the "13 chapters" of which Ssu-ma Ch`ien speaks were

essentially the same as those now extant. We have his word for

it that they were widely circulated in his day, and can only

regret that he refrained from discussing them on that account.

Sun Hsing-yen says in his preface: --

During the Ch`in and Han dynasties Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR

was in general use amongst military commanders, but they seem

to have treated it as a work of mysterious import, and were

unwilling to expound it for the benefit of posterity. Thus

it came about that Wei Wu was the first to write a commentary

on it.

As we have already seen, there is no reasonable ground to

suppose that Ts`ao Kung tampered with the text. But the text

itself is often so obscure, and the number of editions which

appeared from that time onward so great, especially during the

T`ang and Sung dynasties, that it would be surprising if numerous

corruptions had not managed to creep in. Towards the middle of

the Sung period, by which time all the chief commentaries on Sun

Tzu were in existence, a certain Chi T`ien-pao published a work

in 15 CHUAN entitled "Sun Tzu with the collected commentaries of

ten writers." There was another text, with variant readings put

forward by Chu Fu of Ta-hsing, which also had supporters among

the scholars of that period; but in the Ming editions, Sun Hsing-

yen tells us, these readings were for some reason or other no

longer put into circulation. Thus, until the end of the 18th

century, the text in sole possession of the field was one derived

from Chi T`ien-pao's edition, although no actual copy of that

important work was known to have survived. That, therefore, is

the text of Sun Tzu which appears in the War section of the great

Imperial encyclopedia printed in 1726, the KU CHIN T`U SHU CHI

CH`ENG. Another copy at my disposal of what is practically the

same text, with slight variations, is that contained in the

"Eleven philosophers of the Chou and Ch`in dynasties" [1758].

And the Chinese printed in Capt.

Calthrop's first edition is evidently a similar version which has filtered

through Japanese channels. So things remained until Sun Hsing-yen

[1752-1818], a distinguished antiquarian and classical scholar, who

claimed to be an actual descendant of Sun Wu, [36] accidentally

discovered a copy of Chi T`ien-pao's long-lost work, when on a visit

to the library of the Hua-yin temple. [37] Appended to it was the I

SHUO of Cheng Yu-Hsien, mentioned in the T`UNG CHIH, and also

believed to have perished. This is what Sun Hsing-yen designates

as the "original edition (or text)" -- a rather misleading name,

for it cannot by any means claim to set before us the text of Sun

Tzu in its pristine purity. Chi T`ien-pao was a careless

compiler, and appears to have been content to reproduce the

somewhat debased version current in his day, without troubling to

collate it with the earliest editions then available.

Fortunately, two versions of Sun Tzu, even older than the newly

discovered work, were still extant, one buried in the T`UNG TIEN,

Tu Yu's great treatise on the Constitution, the other similarly

enshrined in the T`AI P`ING YU LAN encyclopedia. In both the

complete text is to be found, though split up into fragments,

intermixed with other matter, and scattered piecemeal over a

number of different sections. Considering that the YU LAN takes

us back to the year 983, and the T`UNG TIEN about 200 years

further still, to the middle of the T`ang dynasty, the value of

these early transcripts of Sun Tzu can hardly be overestimated.

Yet the idea of utilizing them does not seem to have occurred to

anyone until Sun Hsing-yen, acting under Government instructions,

undertook a thorough recension of the text. This is his own

account: --

Because of the numerous mistakes in the text of Sun Tzu

which his editors had handed down, the Government ordered

that the ancient edition [of Chi T`ien-pao] should be used,

and that the text should be revised and corrected throughout.

It happened that Wu Nien-hu, the Governor Pi Kua, and Hsi, a

graduate of the second degree, had all devoted themselves to

this study, probably surpassing me therein. Accordingly, I

have had the whole work cut on blocks as a textbook for

military men.

The three individuals here referred to had evidently been

occupied on the text of Sun Tzu prior to Sun Hsing-yen's

commission, but we are left in doubt as to the work they really

accomplished. At any rate, the new edition, when ultimately

produced, appeared in the names of Sun Hsing-yen and only one co-

editor Wu Jen-shi. They took the "original edition" as their

basis, and by careful comparison with older versions, as well as

the extant commentaries and other sources of information such as

the I SHUO, succeeded in restoring a very large number of

doubtful passages, and turned out, on the whole, what must be

accepted as the closes approximation we are ever likely to get to

Sun Tzu's original work. This is what will hereafter be

denominated the "standard text."

The copy which I have used belongs to a reissue dated 1877.

it is in 6 PEN, forming part of a well-printed set of 23 early

philosophical works in 83 PEN. [38] It opens with a preface by

Sun Hsing-yen (largely quoted in this introduction), vindicating

the traditional view of Sun Tzu's life and performances, and

summing up in remarkably concise fashion the evidence in its

favor. This is followed by Ts`ao Kung's preface to his edition,

and the biography of Sun Tzu from the SHIH CHI, both translated

above. Then come, firstly, Cheng Yu-hsien's I SHUO, [39] with

author's preface, and next, a short miscellany of historical and

bibliographical information entitled SUN TZU HSU LU, compiled by

Pi I-hsun. As regards the body of the work, each separate

sentence is followed by a note on the text, if required, and then

by the various commentaries appertaining to it, arranged in

chronological order. These we shall now proceed to discuss

briefly, one by one.