Taylor H Lunsford

I am pleased to announce my next published work- an original translation of Sun Tzu’s Art of War! This classic text of military strategy was composed more than two thousand years ago but remains one of the most influential and widely-read books in the modern world. I’ve drawn on my expertise in ancient Chinese thought as well as my first-hand experience in modern military intelligence to produce a new translation that matches accessibility with faithfulness to the original Chinese. I’ve also included commentary and notes that elaborate on Sun Tzu’s key ideas and how they can be applied to other fields like business, research, or public policy.

The Art of War is an extremely rewarding text to translate. Like many of the great Chinese texts of its era, The Art of War is written in a direct but dense style, where the most profound ideas can be expressed through the simplest sentences. Key concepts like Advantage (利 li), Power (势 shi), or Method (法 fa) are carefully developed into a complete strategic science, which can be usefully applied to any competitive or problem-solving endeavor. How to translate these sentences, which are superficially simple but express deceptively complex meanings, is exactly the kind of puzzle that we translators enjoy most. I’ve read The Art of War many times, in the original and in translation, but producing a translation of my own has undoubtedly deepened my understanding of Sun Tzu’s principles.

In my work to create this new, original translation of The Art of War, I’ve referred to not just the original Classical Chinese text but also to a variety of other translations that I’ve read and enjoyed over the years. This included the classic 1910 translation by Lionel Giles, a more recent scholarly 1993 translation by Ralph D. Sawyer, and a unique and very expressive 1999 translation by Gary Gagliardi. I’ve also consulted traditional commentaries on The Art of War, particularly in Thomas Cleary’s 1989 translation of essays by the strategists Zhuge Liang (181-224 AD) and Liu Ji (1311-1375 AD). Each of these sources capture a different point in the range of interpretations of this difficult and worthwhile text.

As of this writing, I am revising my manuscript and preparing for publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing. The Art of War: A New Translation will be available in paperback and Kindle e-book by the end of December 2024- follow my Amazon author page for further updates!