Sun Wu put forward the view that "war is a great matter of the state": fighting a war is the state's great affair, to be thought out with politics, the economy and geography taken together.
In the late Spring and Autumn period Sun Wu took his thirteen chapters on war to King Helü of Wu, and the body of military learning in the book took shape.
Bamboo slips of the Art of War were found in Western Han tombs at Yinqueshan in Linyi, Shandong, which show that the text was already widely copied in the early Western Han.
In the Yuanfeng era of the Northern Song the court placed the Art of War first among the Seven Military Classics, and it became required reading for military schools and examinations.
The Art of War is the class in the chapter on Strategies on the book of war. It covers the thirteen chapters of Sun Wu: presented to King Helü of Wu in the late Spring and Autumn period, already widely copied in the early Western Han, and placed first among the Seven Military Classics in the Northern Song. Sun Wu treated war as a great matter touching politics, the economy and the lie of the land.
