Many people in the West are familiar with the great Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, and the “Art of War.”
What’s a little less known is that the Sun family continued to produce great generals and strategists. One of Sun Tzu’s descendants, Sun Bing, wrote a strategy treatise so highly regarded in ancient China, that a considerable controversy arose over “Sun Tzu’s” identity.
To explain, the Sun Tzu (孫子) is not an actual name. Sun (孫) is a well-known Chinese family name, but Tzu is not an actual given name. It is an honorific that translates roughly to “master,” so “Sun Tzu” means roughly “Master Sun.” It was common for ancient Chinese texts to only include the family name of the author, and for a highly respected author to be referenced only as “Master ____.”
Further confusing the issue, the Sun family produced multiple prominent generals and strategists, and two were known to have written highly respected military treatises, both titled simply “The Art of War.” One was written by Sun Wu (544 BCE~496 BCE) and the other was written by Sun Bin (?~316 BCE).
Both treatises were known to have widely read and respected, and both men came to be called Master Sun (Sun Tzu) by their contemporaries. The two men’s careers are described in the Records of the Grand Historian, also known as the Shiji. a masterwork of history renowned for its accuracy and reliability.
However, for many years only one military treatise had been passed down from ancient times attributed to “Sun Tzu.” The big mystery was, “Which Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, Sun Wu or Sun Bin?”
A definitive answer to this thousand-year-old question by Chinese historians was finally provided in 1972, through an archaeological dig in Shandong Province. The dig excavated a Han Dynasty-era tomb from the 3rd century BCE, finding numerous bamboo scrolls in a good state of preservation.
A portion of these two-thousand-year-old scrolls turned out to be a copy of Sun Bin’s Art of War, which had been lost for two thousand years.
Thus, Sun Bin’s authorship over “Sun Bin’s The Art of War” was established, and Sun Wu was all but definitively identified as “Sun Tzu.” Thus, “Sun Tzu’s The Art of War” might more appropriately be known as Sun Wu’s The Art of War.
While Sun Wu’s treatise focuses less on specific examples and chooses to delve into more philosophical musings about the fundamental nature of politics, war, and military intelligence (which explains in part its enduring appeal), Sun Bin’s treatise turned out to be more the opposite.
Sun Bin’s The Art of War is a very practical and specific manual explaining Sun Bin’s personal experiences as a strategist, laying out the two major battles that took place under his leadership, and advice on gathering soldiers, the importance of logistics and preparation, defensive and offensive formations on the battlefield, guiding principles for the organization of an army.
While Sun Bin’s treatise may be less applicable to modern generals in understanding strategy than Sun Wu’s, Sun Bin’s treatise provided a wealth of information about how 4th-century Chinese armies organized, prepared, and fought.
They also verified details of the exploits of Sun Bin as a master strategist that had been told in the Shiji, written two centuries after the fact.
What follows are the broadly known details of the life of Sun Bin.
Prodigy Student
Sun Bin claimed descent from the famed Sun Wu (Sun Tzu) and was sent by his family to enter the tutelage of the renowned hermit-philosopher and Taoist master Guiguzi. Guiguzi’s writings would later be compiled into a famed treatise on diplomacy and become part of the Taoist canon.
Sun was said to have been one of Guiguzi’s most promising students and astonished his master by reciting Sun Wu’s Art of War word for word from memory at a young age.
Sun developed a close friendship with another of Guiguzi’s prominent students, a boy named Pang Juan. The two developed such a close bond that they agreed to become sworn brothers. As they began to reach adulthood, Pang was the first to leave the school and was offered a position as a general in the army of the powerful state of Wei.
This period in Chinese history is known as the “Warring States Period” as China had split into numerous small states all warring against each other. The state of Wei was one of the most powerful in what was then central China.
Pang developed a reputation as a feared and able general, winning several victories. Pang then invited Sun as his sworn brother to join him in service of the State of Wei, saying his recommendation will help Sun secure a high position. Sun happily accepted, and traveled to see his old friend.
However, Pang had secretly grown to fear and suspect his old friend. Sun had always been first in the regard of Guiguzi, thus Pang feared that one day Sun would become his enemy and defeat him. But Pang also feared the idea that Sun might enter into Wei’s service and outshine him as he had at Guigozi’s school.
Shortly after Sun arrived in Wei, Pang planted evidence showing Sun was a foreign spy and had him arrested. When the King of Wei ordered Sun’s execution, Pang’s conscience tormented him and Pang hesitated. Pang suggested that Sun may have been led astray unwittingly, and pleaded for Sun’s life. The King of Wei reduced the sentence to face tattooing and the removal of kneecaps, crippling Sun and branding him as a traitorous criminal.
Sun knew he had been betrayed by his friend, and Sun also knew that Pang would never let him leave alive. Sun began behaving as if he had lost all ambition and didn’t even suspect Pang’s role in his misfortune, thus Pang began acting generously as if he was helping a crippled friend through tough times.
Pang began encouraging Sun to write a treatise on military strategy. Sun suspected that Pang wanted to learn everything Sun knew, so that Pang could dispose of Sun permanently. So Sun pretended to go mad. Pang tested this insanity by throwing Sun into a pigsty, but Sun continued the act through the humiliation, even eating animal feces.
Satisfied that Sun must have gone completely insane, Pang dropped his guard and stopped paying any attention to Sun. Finally, without the watchful eye of Pang’s spies monitoring his every move, Sun was able to contact an ambassador from Wei’s powerful eastern rival, the State of Qi. Sun was successfully spirited away and brought to the Kingdom of Qi.
The Kingdom of Qi
Sun arrived in the Kingdom of Qi and was welcomed as an honored guest of the Great General Tian Ji. Sun knew that winning General Tian’s trust was the fastest route to obtaining a position in Qi.
Sun found out that General Tian gambled on chariots racing. General Tian’s chariot teams raced that of the king and the princes. Furthermore, Sun learned that General Tian had lost a great deal of money as the princes’ horses regularly beat out General Tian’s.
Sun devised a strategy for General Tian to win back all of his losses. The General and the Princes would always conduct three races. Both the General and Princes would send for their best horses first, their next best team second, and the remainder for the third race.
Sun told General Tian to bet enough to win back everything he had lost but to change the order of his horses. General Tian would send his worst team first, his best team second, and the second-best team third. General Tian lost the first race, but easily won the second two races, and Sun had won General Tian’s admiration.
General Tian was an honorable man, and he quickly confessed that this tactic wasn’t of his devising, saying it had been Sun’s plan. General Tian recommended that Sun be brought into Qi’s services, and the King of Qi quickly offered Sun a generalship.
Sun declined owing to his physical handicap, saying he was unable to ride a horse. Sun argued a general that could neither walk nor ride would be bad for morale. Thus, Sun was appointed as a military advisor and a Strategist under General Tian’s leadership.
Besieging Wei to Save Zhou
Sun's first opportunity for revenge against Pang came in 354 BCE. Wei attacked Qi’s ally Zhou, with General Pang in command of Wei’s armies. Zhou requested Qi’s help, but Sun recommended that Qi wait. After a series of battles, Pang’s army defeated Zhou and laid siege to Zhou’s capital of Handan. Zhou sent an urgent second request for assistance.
General Tian proposed that Qi immediately mobilize its forces to march for Handan. However, Strategist Sun gently stopped him, saying, “One does not untie a knot by pulling with all his strength.”
First, Sun and General Tian marched into Wei and attacked Xiangling. Despite bringing most of the Qi army, the small force at Xiangling easily defeated the Qi army, forcing it to fall back.
Wei’s General Pang concluded that Qi was too weak to present much of a threat, and emptied Wei’s defenses to reinforce his siege of Handan.
Then suddenly the Qi Army was on the move, brushing aside the minimal defenses left by General Pang and marching on the capital of Daliang. Desperate messengers saying the capitol was in danger arrived at General Pang’s tent.
General Pang gathered his elite cavalry and rode south to relieve the capitol in a near panic. But Sun anticipated this move, and the Qi army had marched north to intercept General Pang as he crossed back over the Yellow River. General Pang’s army was nearly annihilated, with General Pang barely escaping with his life.
The Wei Army abandoned its siege of Handan, and the Qi forces returned victorious with only minimal losses.
When General Pang found out that it had been Sun who bested him, it is said that he greatly regretted intervening in Sun’s execution.
Sun Bin’s strategy would come to be known as “besieging Wei to save Zhao,” known as one of the thirty-six classic Chinese strategies.
Pang Juan shall die in Malingdao, underneath this tree
Twelve years later, in 342 BCE, Sun and Pang faced off against each other once again in battle. General Pang had led the Wei armies to victory against Han, to Wei’s west, and was nearing the Han capital. Han requested the aid of Qi, and the King dispatched General Tian and Strategist Sun to lead the Qi armies once again against Wei.
Sun ordered a slow, methodical march towards the Wei capital, which was enough to trigger a panicked response from the King of Wei, who ordered that General Pang return at once to defend the Wei capital (much to Pang’s frustration).
General Pang and Prince Shen raised most of Wei’s available soldiers in a massive army to march against the Qi army.
Rather than fight this major force head-on, Sun recommended that the Qi army flee north without fighting. General Tian, trusting his strategist, ordered that this be done.
Believing that the Wei forces must have an advantage, but still wary of Sun’s traps, General Pang ordered a cautious pursuit.
Knowing that Pang Juan was being cautious this time, Sun sought to make Pang believe that the Qi army was disintegrating to remove that caution.
After a few days, Sun ordered that the number of cooking hearths to feed the army be cut in half. Then, just the next day, this number was halved again, and Sun ordered that the valuable siege weapons be abandoned at camp and left behind.
Sun knew that General Pang, a good student of strategy, would be watching the cooking hearths to get an idea of how many troops the Qi army had. To General Pang, it appeared that the fleeing Qi army must be beset with deserters, as three-quarters of the Qi army appeared to have fled.
Confident of victory, Pang Juan threw caution to the wind and ordered a full-on pursuit to destroy what remained of the Qi Army.
On the fourth day of the retreat, the Qi Army arrived in a place called Maling.
Maling was a shallow and sparsely wooded gorge. bracketed by wooded ridges on both sides. Sun positioned 10,000 crossbowmen in the wooded ridges.
Then, as nightfall approached, Sun had his men carve the bark off the single tall tree in the center of the gorge, where Sun wrote, “Pang Juan shall die in Malingdao, at the foot of this tree.”
Shortly thereafter, Pang Juan arrived at the gorge with his vanguard of elite cavalry, the banner of the Great General held aloft. With his troops reporting that something was written on the large tree in the center, Pang Juan approached the tree holding a torch.
Pang Juan angrily ordered that the words be scrapped off the tree when suddenly, arrows filled the air as Sun’s ambush was sprung. Sources disagree as to whether Pang died from the arrows or whether he committed suicide after being struck by multiple arrows. Whatever the cause, Pang Juan had died, and the Wei Army was demoralized.
The Qi army relentlessly pursued the retreating Wei army. Dealing the Wei Army a devastating blow, Qi soldiers even captured Prince Shen. The Kingdom of Wei was greatly weakened by this defeat and would remain a lesser power for several generations.
Sun Bin was said to have deeply grieved the death of his friend, Pang Juan.
For reasons that are not known, Sun Bin would live on for another 26 years at the Qi court but would never command another army.
Historians suggest that Sun Bin was a victim of court intrigues. It is known that General Tian, who was Sun’s constant partner and advocate, fled into exile in Chu for several years following his victory at Maling. General Tian drew the ire of a powerful minister close to the King of Qi. Fearing for his life, General Tian did not return to Qi until after the minister and the king had passed away over a decade later. Sun Bin may have lost his position in court due to these intrigues.
Sun Bin does not seem to have had any strong desire to seek service elsewhere, however, as Sun Bin seems to have enjoyed a quiet life of semi-retirement in Qi and devoted the rest of his life to completing his magnum opus, “Sun Bin’s The Art of War.”
Sun Bin remained greatly admired by his contemporaries and for centuries after his death. This respect led to him being known to all as “Sun Tzu,” much like his great ancestor Sun Wu. The very thing that would also cause over a thousand years of confusion by later historians.