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Melvyn Bragg

Hilde de Weerdt

Tim Barrett

Imre Galambos

Simon Tillotson

In Our Time: Sun Tzu and The Art of War

Sun Tzu and The Art of War

01/03/2018

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Sun Tzu and The Art of War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential ancient Chinese work on military strategy.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Chinese military adviser Sun Tzu from the 6th century BC and the influential work of military strategy associated with him, The Art of War.

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.

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