Sun Tzu's classic, "The Art of War" has obviously been around along time. It recently, in the last 5 or 10 years, has become popular again. Interpretations of the old Chinese book have been written to help people to become successful in life, or business or other areas.
The last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, also read this book. According to the book, "The Last Shogun" by Ryotaro Shiba, Yoshinobu was rereading the classic book during his last days in power. Yoshinobu used the book to try and help him better understand his enemy, the leader of the Satsuma forces.
I read this book during my waning days in college and wasn't all that impressed. Maybe it's because everything in the book has become standard practice, but I found it very redundant.
ReplyDeleteI actually have not read the book yet.
ReplyDeleteI actually like the Art of War, but not as a road to life. I think that approach is kind of silly. Sun-tzu's intent was how to win wars quickly and effectively, with minimal loss of life, rather than dragging things out in needless sieges, wasteful attacks and so on.
ReplyDeleteI actually really like this one illustrated version by a famous Taiwanese cartoonist:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385472587?ie=UTF8&tag=thelev8thbud-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0385472587
The illustrated book looks interesting.
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