Ralph D. Sawyer
Autor de The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China
Sobre El Autor
Ralph D. Sawyer, one of the leading scholars of Chinese warfare, has also worked extensively with major military and intelligence agencies. After study at MIT, Harvard, and National Taiwan University, and a brief period of university teaching, Sawyer has spent the past thirty years in international mostrar más consulting work throughout Asia. Working from a strong technical and intelligence background, he has focused his research on the theory and practice of warfare in China, both traditional and contemporary mostrar menos
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Sun Tzu's Art of War, a very intelligent yet slippery and devious book, is the centerpiece here. Some of the other military classics seem to have aged awkwardly; but there are some hidden gems, especially the Three Strategies of Huang Shih-Kung. These Three Strategies are brief; their advice on war is kind of dubious; but their vision of statecraft in general and of civil administration is both profoundly moral and profoundly compelling.
The tactics are fascinating. Unfortunately, this book spends most of its time elaborating on the history of warfare scholarship, which is boring as hell.
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Sawyer's translations are well-done and the book benefits greatly from his detailed historical commentaries that contextualise these seven works. The translations are readable but do not sacrifice the meaning of the texts for ease of comprehension. However, in using Wade-Giles Romanisation, the lay reader can get confused when using more modern research or texts in Pinyin. The only other downside is that the original Classical Chinese is not included but Chinese editions rectify that.
In all, this is an excellent piece of not only scholarship for both sinologists and military historians but also an excellent introduction to Chinese military thought and its influence on two millennia of East Asian thinking.… (más)