Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: Craftsmanship & Current Relevance

Abstract

Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ is by far one of the finest political and war discourses ever written in prose form. Dating back to the Sixth Century B.C., it contains tremendous far-sighted elements of strategy and tactics embedded in it. He is often referred to as the modern-day economist a war strategist of his times. Having belonged to one of the oldest Chinese civilizations, he has spelt out clear principles of strategy and stressed the importance of tactics in war scenario. The discourse contains in it a detailed account of first-hand human experiences. The paper focuses on the strategy discourse, which is filled with courage, dedication and commitment. Tzu is seen as a realist in his approach and the discourse contains analogies on ‘Nature’. The paper also offers deep analysis of ‘craftsmanship’ of the discourse from the standpoint of discourse literature.

Keywords: Sun Tzu, War, Strategy, Tactics, Craftsmanship.