The Principles of Sun Tzu: The Art of War in Business

01THE PRINCIPLES OF SUN TZU

The Art of War is a short Chinese book on strategy, traditionally credited to a general called Sun Tzu (“Master Sun”). It is divided into 13 chapters.

This page groups its ideas into seven principles. The grouping is ours, not a list from the book, and so is every “in business” reading below. The quotations are from Lionel Giles’s English translation of 1910, which is free to read on Project Gutenberg. Each one carries its chapter and verse, so you can find it in a couple of minutes.

Know Your Enemy and Yourself

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War III.18 (Giles)

The verse goes on: “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” The Chinese says a hundred battles too (百戰不殆), so the popular “thousand battles” version is not what the text says.

Our reading, for a business: know your own costs, strengths and limits as well as you know your competitors’. The verse gives the two halves equal weight.

Understand the Terrain

“The natural formation of the country is the soldier’s best ally; but a power of estimating the adversary, of controlling the forces of victory, and of shrewdly calculating difficulties, dangers and distances, constitutes the test of a great general.” — X.21 (Giles)

Chapter X opens with six kinds of terrain, and chapter XI lists nine varieties of ground. As we read this verse, ground helps, but judgement decides.

Our reading: in business the “terrain” is the market you are standing in, meaning its size, its customers, its rules and who else is in it. As we read Sun Tzu, that ground is worth learning before you put money or time into it, and for a real decision a licensed adviser can look at your own situation.

Focus on Your Strengths

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.” — IV.1 (Giles)

The next verse, IV.2, adds: “To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

Our reading: secure the part you control first, such as a product that works, costs you can carry and customers you already serve well. Then watch for the opening a competitor gives you.

The line “Opportunities multiply as they are seized” is often credited to Sun Tzu. It is not in Giles’s translation: we searched the full text and it does not appear.

Exploit Your Competitors’ Weaknesses

“Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.” — VI.29 (Giles)

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.” — VI.30 (Giles)

Our reading: look for the need a competitor serves badly, rather than attacking the thing they do best.

Adapt Your Strategy to the Situation

“Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.” — VI.32 (Giles)

Earlier, in the first chapter, the book says: “According as circumstances are favourable, one should modify one’s plans.” (I.17). Chapter VIII, “Variation of Tactics”, is about the same idea. Giles notes that its heading means literally “The Nine Variations”.

Our reading: have a plan, and expect to change it.

The line “The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher” is sometimes credited to Sun Tzu. It is not in Giles’s translation. The book does use water to describe tactics, in VI.29 to VI.32, but not in these words.

Deception and Surprise

“All warfare is based on deception.” — I.18 (Giles)

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” — VII.19 (Giles)

Our reading: the useful business version is surprise, not deception. Keep plans private until they are ready, and move quickly once you commit. We would not read this as permission to mislead customers or partners, who are not the enemy in this picture.

Build Alliances

“We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbours.” — VII.12 (Giles)

The book is choosy about allies. In chapter XI it says of a warlike prince who attacks a powerful state: “Hence he does not strive to ally himself with all and sundry, nor does he foster the power of other states.” (XI.55).

Chapter III also ranks the ways of winning. The best is to win without a battle at all:

“Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” — III.2 (Giles)

The popular “the greatest victory is that which requires no battle” is a paraphrase of this verse, not a translation of it.

Our reading: partners are worth having when you know what they want. A deal that settles a contest can be worth more than winning it.

The “thousand battles” version	III.18 says “a hundred battles”, and so does the Chinese.
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle”	A paraphrase of III.2: “supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized”	Not in Giles's translation.
“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher”	Not in Giles's translation; the book's water passages are VI.29 to VI.32.

Verse numbers and wording from Lionel Giles's 1910 translation (Project Gutenberg #132); the Chinese from Wikisource.

02What the book contains

The Art of War is short: 13 chapters, each a run of numbered sayings. The titles below are Giles’s, with one verse from each chapter to show what it is about.

1. Laying Plans: the general who wins “makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought” (I.26).
2. Waging War: “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.” (II.6)
3. Attack by Stratagem: winning without fighting (III.2), and knowing the enemy and yourself (III.18).
4. Tactical Dispositions: first make yourself impossible to defeat, then wait for the opening (IV.1).
5. Energy: “Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of the trigger.” (V.15)
6. Weak Points and Strong: avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak (VI.30).
7. Manœuvering: tactical manœuvering, “than which there is nothing more difficult” (VII.3).
8. Variation of Tactics: the general who understands varying his tactics “knows how to handle his troops” (VIII.4). Its heading means literally “The Nine Variations”.
9. The Army on the March: encamping the army and “observing signs of the enemy” (IX.1).
10. Terrain: “six kinds of terrain” (X.1).
11. The Nine Situations: “nine varieties of ground”, from dispersive ground to desperate ground (XI.1).
12. The Attack by Fire: “five ways of attacking with fire” (XII.1), and a warning that “no general should fight a battle simply out of pique” (XII.18).
13. The Use of Spies: the foreknowledge a general needs “cannot be elicited from spirits” (XIII.5), and “Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men.” (XIII.6)

The two “nine” titles are easy to mix up. In Giles’s translation, “The Nine Variations” is the literal meaning of chapter VIII’s heading; chapter XI is “The Nine Situations”.

A note on the author. Sima Qian’s history, the Shiji, records a tradition that the book was written by one Sun Wu, a native of the state of Qi, and read by King Helü of Wu, who began his reign in 514 BC. From the Song dynasty onward, Chinese scholars doubted this story, and some doubted whether Sun Wu existed at all, mainly because the Zuo zhuan, which Giles calls “the greatest contemporary record”, never mentions him. When the book was written is still discussed. Giles himself dated the book between 505 and 473 BC, from its references to the war with Yüeh, and argued that it was already in existence towards the end of the 5th century BC, the latest date he allowed. The sinologist Ulrich Theobald summarises the modern view as a 5th-century draft later revised, making the received version “a product from the Warring States period”.

In 1972, bamboo texts excavated from a Han-dynasty tomb at Yinqueshan, in Shandong, included the Sunzi bingfa (The Art of War) and a separate, long-lost book by Sun Bin. Theobald notes that the Yinqueshan text is “somewhat different from the received version”, and that the find shows two traditions by the early Han: a Master Sun from Wu (this book) and a Master Sun from Qi (Sun Bin). None of this makes the book less useful; it does mean “Sun Tzu said” is a looser claim than it sounds.

Tradition (the Shiji)	Written by Sun Wu and read by King Helü of Wu, who began his reign in 514 BC.
Giles (1910)	Dated it between 505 and 473 BC, from its references to the war with Yüeh; the end of the 5th century BC was the latest date he allowed.
The modern view (Theobald)	A 5th-century draft, later revised: the received version is “a product from the Warring States period”.

From Giles's introduction (with his translation of the Shiji) and Ulrich Theobald's entry on ChinaKnowledge.de.

03THE ART OF WAR IN BUSINESS

A few ways to use the book without over-reading it:

• Check the verse before you quote it. Giles’s translation is free online and numbered by chapter and verse. If a “Sun Tzu” line has no chapter and verse, search the text for it first.
• Start with yourself. IV.1 and IV.2 put your own position first: what you control, what you can afford, what you do well.
• Read the market as ground. Chapters X and XI are about reading the ground before moving; the business version is learning a market before committing to it.
• Treat “deception” as timing. Keeping plans quiet until they are ready is fair; misleading the people you serve is a different thing.
• Remember it is a book about war. Much of it, from spies to attacking with fire, has no business equivalent in our reading, and that is fine.

How we checked this · Last checked October 2026

• Every quotation is from Giles's 1910 translation on Project Gutenberg, with its chapter and verse; the Chinese wording is from Wikisource.
• The history of the text follows Giles's introduction and Ulrich Theobald's entries on ChinaKnowledge.de; we did not read the Yinqueshan slips or a modern edition of them, so what we say about them rests on Theobald.

Checked October 2026. Every quotation is from Giles’s 1910 translation on Project Gutenberg, with its chapter and verse; the Chinese wording is from Wikisource; the history of the text follows Giles’s introduction and Ulrich Theobald’s entries on ChinaKnowledge.de. We did not read the Yinqueshan slips or a modern edition of them, so what we say about them rests on Theobald.

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04Sources