Ancient Chinese Strategies

The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, is the the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare and has influenced both Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond.  The first chapter is called Laying Plans, and it opens with: "1. Sun Tzŭ said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State."

However, this isn't the only ancient military treatise.  There are Seven Military Classics (one of which is the Art of War).  None of the other 6 books have an English translation that is available on the internet.

The Book of Five Rings is a Japanese text written about 1645.  It is used by business leaders who find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work in a business context. It has been made into a graphic novel.  It begins: "In the first week or so of the tenth month in the twentieth year of Kan'Ei, I climbed Mount Iwato in the Province of Higo on the Island of Kyushu. In my youth, I set my mind on the martial arts and had my first match when I was thirteen."

The Thirty-Six Stratagems are a collection of Chinese proverbs about the fields of politics, diplomacy and espionage.  The first strategy is called "Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea" and it begins: "Moving about in the darkness and shadows, occupying isolated places, or hiding behind screens will only attract suspicious attention. To lower an enemy's guard you must act in the open hiding your true intentions under the guise of common every day activities."

On Guerilla Warfare was written by Mao Zedong (Tse-tung) in 1937 to explain an irregular type of warfare to be used against the Japanese.  It begins: "In a war of revolutionary character, guerrilla operations are a necessary part."  He also wrote Quotations from Chairman Mao, which was a little red book widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution during the 1960s and 1970s.  It begins:  The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism.

The classic western book on military strategy is On War by Clausewitz.  It starts with: "WE propose to consider first the single elements of our subject, then each branch or part, and, last of all, the whole, in all its relations—therefore to advance from the simple to the complex."

Machiavelli also wrote a book called "The Art of War".   It starts with:
As I believe that it is possible for one to praise, without concern, any man after he is dead since every reason and supervision for adulation is lacking, I am not apprehensive in praising our own Cosimo Ruccelai, whose name is never remembered by me without tears, as I have recognized in him those parts which can be desired in a good friend among friends and in a citizen of his country.

Update: Thomas P.M. Barnett is a modern-day war strategist who taught at a Chinese thinktank called the Knowfar Institute, and he maintains a blog which he updates frequently.