Problem description:
When was Sun Tzu's Art of War written?
Analysis:
There are different opinions about the author and book of The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
We think that the author of this book should be Sun Wu, who was proofread by later scholars. "Thirteen Articles" were written in the late Spring and Autumn Period.
Since the Song Dynasty, people have been arguing about the author and works of Sun Tzu's Art of War. To sum up, there are mainly the following points:
1, written in the late Spring and Autumn Period, Sun Wu. Sima Qian's Historical Records in the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's Brief Explanation of Sun Tzu's Art of War, Song Lian's Distinguishing Scholars in the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin's Mistakes in Four Schools, Ji Yun's Catalogue of Sikuquanshu in the Qing Dynasty, and Sun Xingyan's Annotations on Ten Zi of Sun Tzu all hold this view.
2. This book was written in the late Spring and Autumn Period, originally in Sun Wu and in Sun Bin. The owner of Xing Wu Songyunge in Ming Dynasty put forward this view in Sun Tzu's Preface. Modern Chen Qitian further pointed out in the revision and interpretation of Sun Tzu's Art of War that "the art of martial arts is taught to you, and you can write thirteen articles accordingly". Yoshio Takeuchi, a Japanese, also thinks that Sonnets are not written by Sun Wu, but by Sun Bin.
This book was written by Wu Zixu in the late Spring and Autumn Period. It is believed that Sun Wu is Wu Zixu, and Sun Bin, after Wu Zixu, lives between Ah and Hong and changes his surname to Sun. Mou Ting, a Qing man, put forward this view in Sun Zi.
This book was written by Chu Shi in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Ye Shi held this view in Xi Xue, Volume 46, Sun Zi.
This book was written during the Warring States period, not by Sun Wu. According to Ouyang Xiu's record in Mei's Preface to Sun Tzu, Mei thinks that this book is "the theory of warring states", not written by Sun Wu. Qingquan Wang Zu and others agreed.
6. This book was written by Sun Bin during the Warring States Period. Sun Wu and Sun Bin were one person. China scholar Qian Mu and Japanese scholar Saito Zhuotang hold this view. Jin Dejian, a modern man, also thinks that the author of Sun Tzu's Art of War is Sun Bin in Thirteen Sun Tzu Written by Sun Bin.
7. I don't know. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen said, "Sun Wu has not left, and I don't know when it will bear fruit." A Qing scholar Yao Jiheng also thinks that Sun Wu and Sun Tzu's The Art of War are "unknown". Huang textual research and correction of ancient and modern fake books: "Although it is uncertain whether Sun Wuzhi exists or not, there are no suspicious people in thirteen books that are not Sun Wuzhi."
8. The author of Thirteen Articles is Sun Wu, but Sun Wu is not the grandson of Shu Tian, but Tian Wuzi, the eldest son of Tian Wuyu, and Tian Qi and Shu Tian are his younger brothers. Today, Mr. Tian Changwu put forward this view at the Third International Symposium on the Art of War held in Linyi, Shandong Province from 65438 to 0992.
Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's Art of War were unearthed at tapiscia sinensis Mountain 1972 in Linyi, Shandong Province, which proved that Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's Art of War were not the same book, and it was reasonable for Han Zhi to record Wu's Art of War and Zi's Art of War respectively. However, the debate about the author and book of Sun Tzu's Art of War has never stopped. Li Ling believes that Sun Tzu's Art of War was not written by Sun Wu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, but a record of the military thoughts of the "Sun Tzu School". The book's writing process started from Wu in the late Spring and Autumn Period to Qi in the Warring States Period, and it was not completed until the middle of the Warring States Period after a long period of finishing. It cannot be ruled out that Sun Bin participated in finishing the book. Guo Huaruo believes that Sun Tzu's Art of War was compiled by Sun Wu's disciples according to his writings, and his ideological system belongs to Sun Wu, probably from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period. Yang Bing An and Chen Peng believe that The Art of War was founded in the Spring and Autumn Period, basically completed in the Warring States Period, and finalized in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
We think Sun Tzu's Art of War should be written by Sun Wu, and it was written in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Although later schools have been proofreading, this proofreading is based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
The author of Sun Tzu's Art of War and the time of its completion are clearly recorded in Historical Records: The Art of War of Sun Tzu and Biography of Wu Qi, which says: "Sun Tzu's soldiers are all the same. In the art of war, it can be seen in He Lu, the king of Wu. He Lv said, "I will try my best to read the thirteen articles of Zi ..." "According to Historical Records Wu Taibo Family, in the third year of He Lv (first 5 12), after Wu Jun conquered Chu Chengshu (southwest of Lujiang County, Anhui Province), he wanted to attack Chu Duying (northwest of Jiangling)," General Sun Sun. " The same book "Biography of Wu Zixu" has the same record. These records tell us that the Art of War was written by Sun Wu, who was a "general" of the State of Wu before he attacked Chu in 5 12 BC. As for the time when Sun Wu wrote a letter, it was clearly recorded in the Biography of the Harmony between Wu and Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period written by the later Han Dynasty that it was three years, and it was also in this year that he dissuaded the king of Wu from attacking Ying. This time is consistent with historical records and should be more reliable. At least so far, no conclusive evidence has been found to deny this record. According to Records of the Historian and Biographies of Wu Zixu, after nine years together, "Wu Wang called Zi Xu and Sun Wu and said,' At first, you can't enter. What's the result now?' The second son said to him, "Chu is greedy, but both Tang and Cai complain." If the king wants to cut it, he must first get Tang and Cai Naike. "Listen and see." So there was the White Battle of Wu Chu (now northeast of Macheng, Hubei, or north of Hanchuan) and Wu Jun's "Five Wars". According to Sun Tzu's Art of War and Biographies of Wu Zixu, Sun Wu participated in the planning of breaking Chu in the west, Qi Jin in the north and Yue people in the south, and they all made great contributions to the hegemony of Wu.
There are three main reasons for denying the above records since the Song Dynasty: First, there is no record of Sun Wu's deeds in Zuozhuan and other ancient books; Second, selfless writers wrote books and made statements in the Spring and Autumn Period; Third, there was no large-scale war in the Spring and Autumn Period as mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War. In this regard, we need to make a simple analysis.
As for the reasons why there are no stories about Sun Wu in the pre-Qin classics such as Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu, Song Lian in the Ming Dynasty has already talked about his own views in The Judge. He said: "In the Spring and Autumn Period, people who talked about the affairs of various countries were recorded in books; Otherwise, it is not. During these two hundred and forty years, the big country is Qin and the small country is Yan, and more and more. What they have done is not seen in the classics, which is embarrassing! " In addition, Sun Tzu's story is not recorded in Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu, but it is recorded in other pre-Qin classics. It is also inappropriate to ignore other classics and documents such as Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu. For example, Sun Bin's The Art of War, Chen Ji's Questions about Base Areas, Wei Liaozi's On System, Xunzi's On Soldiers, and Han Feizi's Five Mistakes are all recorded (see the second chapter of this book for details). This shows that Sun Wu did exist before, and he did write The Art of War.
Academic circles have different views on the issue of selfless writers writing books at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. Mr. Luo Genze pointed out that there were selfless works before the Warring States Period. This view has become an important basis for future generations to verify the authenticity of ancient books. But many of them are skeptical. As we all know, private schools appeared in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and it is impossible to affirm the writings of selfless people. For example, Deng once wrote Bamboo Punishment, which is different from the official Bamboo Punishment Book. According to the nine-year record of Zuo Zhuan, Zhu Zi, the ruling stepson (who died in 522), was first written by Deng and later used by the government. Du Zhuyun said, "Deng, Dr. Zheng wanted to change the old punishment cast by Zheng, but he didn't listen to your majesty's orders and made a criminal law without permission. The book is on the bamboo slips, so it is called bamboo punishment. " This note should be well founded. According to Lu Chunqiu, Deng founded a private school and "the people ... learned countless litigators", which shows the prosperity of his private school. It also says, "Zheng Guo is hanging (hanging) books. There is no suspense in the distribution list, and Deng sends it (to send it); The distribution order was not written, and Deng relied on it. If it is infinite, then Deng Xi should also be infinite. " The "book" here should also refer to Deng's bamboo punishment, and "hanging", "making" and "relying" are different countermeasures he took for the purpose of education. According to "Zhuangzi Stole Foot", Stole Foot once scolded Confucius for "making up words and arrogating to himself to be civil and military". It seems that Confucius still "made" and "made". Confucius claimed to "narrate without doing", but even if he "narrated", I'm afraid he wouldn't rely entirely on his head to remember it. There should be some notes. "Narration" cannot be completely excluded from "works". Regarding Laozi, the mainstream view in academic circles is that it was written by Zhou royal historians at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. In this case, it should also be a private work.
It is said that the armies of various countries in the Spring and Autumn Period were not as large as those mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War, but only in the Warring States Period, so it is debatable to assert that this book will not be written in the Spring and Autumn Period. Mr. Lan made a textual research on this in the Textual Research on the Times Characteristics of Sun Tzu's Art of War. According to this article and other historical materials, it can be seen that in 54 BC1Jin ruled the army in Yinan, with 4,000 vehicles with simple armor. 10 If 9 counties such as Han and Yang She Stone are counted, the actual number of vehicles is as high as 4,900. In 530 BC, King Chu Ling claimed that there were only four counties, namely Chen, Cai, Dong and Butang, with a total of 4,000 troops. In addition, the poem also praised the public "bus thousand riding" and "public servant 30 thousand" In 632 BC, Che Jin defeated Chu Shi 700 times in the battle of Chengpu. In 548 BC, Zheng Zizhan and Zi Chan took 700 chariots to cut Chen; In 484 BC, Wu and Lu jointly cut Qi, and the Qi army alone got 800 rickshaws, the first of which was 3,000. With so many countries participating in the war, it is no problem that the total number of national personnel carriers is above 1000. According to the proportion of Sun Tzu, the strength of these countries should be above 65438+ 10,000. In addition, Gou Jian's oath in "Guoyu Yueshang" contains the words that "there are 3,000 people in the present". There are two solutions to "100 million", one is 100 million and the other is 100 thousand. This record shows that Wu's troops were also above 654.38+10,000 at that time. In a word, the size of the army, the combat style with chariots as the mainstay, and the composition of arms with chariots, infantry and no signs of cavalry reflected in Sun Tzu's Art of War should conform to the situation at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.
However, Sun Tzu's Art of War did have collating by later generations, and some people escaped into later generations' characters during collating. For example, in the Han bamboo slips of Sun Tzu's Art of War, there is a saying that "Yan Zhixing is also, and Su Qin is in Qi"; The words "burn the boat and break the kettle" were added to nine notes by eleven scholars. This situation appeared in the collation of Sun Tzu's Art of War after it was written, and it could not affect people's recognition that it was written at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.