Sun Wu (Sun Tzu)

Also known as Sun Zi · Zhang Qing · Bing Sheng

Sun Wu was a native of Qi whose story comes mainly from the joint biography of Sunzi and Wu Qi in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji); the Zuo Commentary never mentions him. According to the Shiji, he sought an audience with King Helu of Wu, who had read his thirteen chapters on war and asked him to drill the palace women as a test. When they laughed at his orders he executed the king's two favourites who led them, and Helu made him a general. Sima Qian credits him with a share in Wu's victories, when it broke Chu and entered its capital Ying and overawed Qi and Jin. The later Annals of Wu and Yue (Wu Yue chunqiu) adds that Wu Zixu recommended him seven times. Nothing reliable is known of his birth, death or later life. In 1972 bamboo copies of the Sunzi and of Sun Bin's Art of War were found together in a Han tomb at Yinqueshan, Shandong, proving them separate works.