# Sun Tzu

- Id: `sunzi`
- Canonical url: `https://prokopton42.com/en/thinkers/sunzi/`
- Language: `en`
- Editorial status: `available`
- Content checksum: `599fc0d621d661aaafeeef0a91209fd74816a944dc9d18da6612a084a568c9e7`

## Summary

The traditional strategist credited with The Art of War, Sun Tzu treats victory as a problem of knowledge, preparation, and economy of force.

## Overview

Conservative late Warring States horizon for the formation of the received strategic text. This is a textual horizon, not a claim that one biographical Sun Wu lived until this date.

## Lifespan

```json
{
    "display": "traditional 6th-5th c. BCE; historical identity disputed",
    "era": "Classical Antiquity",
    "distance": "about 2,475–2,575 years ago",
    "age_at_death": null
}
```

## Intellectual tradition

```json
{
    "id": "chinese-thought",
    "name": "Early Chinese thought",
    "detail": "Early Chinese military thought",
    "labels": [
        "Early Chinese thought",
        "Early Chinese military thought"
    ]
}
```

## Historical cutoff

```json
{
    "year": -300,
    "display": "300 BCE",
    "reason": "Conservative late Warring States horizon for the formation of the received strategic text. This is a textual horizon, not a claim that one biographical Sun Wu lived until this date."
}
```

## Statistics

```json
{
    "works": 1,
    "passages": 13,
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "fr",
        "lzh"
    ],
    "intellectual_exposures": 2,
    "typed_relationships": 1
}
```

## Places

```json
[
    {
        "name": "Qi cultural region",
        "period": "traditional 6th century BCE",
        "description": "Later tradition names Qi as Sun Wu’s place of origin. This is not a secure biographical location.",
        "confidence": "E",
        "source_url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E5%85%B5%E6%B3%95"
    },
    {
        "name": "Wu cultural region",
        "period": "traditional late 6th century BCE",
        "description": "Sima Qian’s later account associates Sun Wu with King Helü’s court. The service narrative remains disputed.",
        "confidence": "E",
        "source_url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E5%85%B5%E6%B3%95"
    },
    {
        "name": "Yinqueshan",
        "period": "2nd century BCE Western Han manuscript context",
        "description": "Archaeological setting of bamboo Sunzi fragments and lost material. The witness is not silently substituted for the received thirteen chapters.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E5%85%B5%E6%B3%95"
    },
    {
        "name": "Gusu / Suzhou",
        "period": "later Shiji service narrative",
        "description": "Concrete map point for the disputed tradition that Sun Wu served King Helü at the Wu court.",
        "confidence": "E",
        "source_url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E5%85%B5%E6%B3%95"
    },
    {
        "name": "Boju",
        "period": "506 BCE in later tradition",
        "description": "Later biography associates Sun Wu with Wu's campaign against Chu. The attribution is not treated as secure biography.",
        "confidence": "E",
        "source_url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%AD%AB%E5%AD%90%E5%85%B5%E6%B3%95"
    }
]
```