The Seven Military Classics is one of the most profound studies of warfare ever written, a stanchion in sinological and military history. It presents an Eastern tradition of strategic thought that emphasizes outwitting one's opponent through speed, stealth, flexibility, and a minimum of force--an approach very different from that stressed in the West. Safeguarded for centuries by the ruling elite of imperial China, even in modern times these writings have been known only to a handful of Western specialists. This volume contains seven separate essays, written between 500 BCE and 700 CE, that preserve the essential tenets of strategy distilled from the experience of the most brilliant warriors of ancient China.

Written between 500 BCE and 700 CE, these seven texts have inspired generals for millennia, both in China and the wider world. Featuring Sun Tzu's The Art of War, this new translation brings to light the military masterpieces of ancient China. These seven texts display an understanding of strategy and warfare still relevant more than 2,000 years after they were originally written. Together, they present a uniquely eastern tradition of warfare that emphasizes speed, stealth, and cunning. This collection includes: • The Art of War • Wuzi • Wei Liaozi • Taigong's Six Secret Teachings • The Methods of the Sima • Questions and Replies Between Emperor Taizong of Tang and General Li Jing.

This Handbook focuses on the complex relationship between entrepreneurship and conflict. Editors Wim Naudé and Bernadette Power construct a broad overview of central research themes in the field, covering states being captured by entrepreneurs, states capturing businesses, entrepreneurship in post-conflict reconstruction, and entrepreneurs in conflict against other entrepreneurs.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of China to the world economy, and yet the majority of books either look at Chinese business by applying Western frameworks or models to the context of China or focus on a particular aspect of business in China. Authored by an academic expert on China, this new, completely revised edition of Chinese Business offers its readers a comprehensive and systematic body of knowledge of Chinese business. It has taken a holistic perspective, intending to achieve a balance between the academic and practical, between theory and practice and between traditional and current (Internet-based) industry. The framework of this book subsumes all the major factors that should be taken into consideration when Western companies contemplate a China strategy, including history, philosophy, ancient military classics, strategy and marketing, innovation, Internet business and human resources. The discussion of these factors is supplemented with insightful case studies. Chinese Business, Second Edition, can be used as a textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates at business schools and as a useful reference for researchers, senior executives, consultants and government officials involved in Chinese business.

Winner of the 2013 Reading Committee Accolade for a Specialist Publication in the Humanities presented by the International Convention of Asia Scholars In early China, conceptions of music became important culturally and politically. This fascinating book examines a wide range of texts and discourse on music during this period (ca. 500–100 BCE) in light of the rise of religious, protoscientific beliefs on the intrinsic harmony of the cosmos. By tracking how music began to take on cosmic and religious significance, Erica Fox Brindley shows how music was used as a tool for such enterprises as state unification and cultural imperialism. She also outlines how musical discourse accompanied the growth of an explicit psychology of the emotions, served as a fundamental medium for spiritual attunement with the cosmos, and was thought to have utility and potency in medicine. While discussions of music in state ritual or as an aesthetic and cultural practice abound, this book is unique in linking music to religious belief and demonstrating its convergences with key religious, political, and intellectual transformations in early China.

Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History provides a wide-ranging examination of war in human history, from the beginning of the species until the current rise of the so-called Islamic State. Although it covers many societies throughout time, the book does not attempt to tell all stories from all places, nor does it try to narrate "important" conflicts. Instead, author Wayne E. Lee describes the emergence of military innovations and systems, examining how they were created and then how they moved or affected other societies. These innovations are central to most historical narratives, including the development of social complexity, the rise of the state, the role of the steppe horseman, the spread of gunpowder, the rise of the west, the bureaucratization of military institutions, the industrial revolution and the rise of firepower, strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, and the creation of "people's war."

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a series of lessons in the applied art of problem solving. Sun (544 BC-496 BC), an experienced general from the Warring States period of Chinese history, saw war as an inevitable problem – indeed, the ultimate problem confronting the state. The Art of War summarises his lessons on how to solve the problems raised by conflict. The work comprises a series of pithy discussions of the different strategic situations that might arise, and the best responses for each. In many ways it is a masterclass in the application of critical thinking to practical affairs. Aspiring generals are advised to 'appraise the situation' according to five separate criteria, and to plan accordingly. 'The expert at battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage', Sun writes, so every general must assess their situation from every angle, and establish not only the best way to give themselves the strategic advantage – but also of preventing the other side from giving itself the advantage. Throughout the text, Sun epitomises the qualities of a good problem solver by focusing on the nature of the problem; asking productive questions about it; and making sound decisions.

The Volume Science, Technology, Imperialism And War Interlinks The Concerned Themes To Present A Coherent Analyssis Of The Development Of Related Ideas And Institutions In The Subcontinent. The Chapters On Science, Therefore, Look At The Cognitive And Socio-Historical Aspects Of Science, Relating The Same With The Establishment And Spread Of Imperialism In India; With Its Application To Develop Technologies; And With The Use Of Such Technologies To Fund The Major Preoccupation Of Imperialism - War. Likewise, The Section On Technology Leads The Reader To A Search For Its Very Probable Links With Imperialism And War. The Section On Imperialism Offers Four Themes In The Edited Volume: The First One Deals With Its Theories; The Second With Its Link With Colonialism; And The Third And The Fourth Follow Its Manifestation In The Russian And British Adventures-Chiefly In Central Asia And India. The Depecdence Of Imperialism On War Looms Large. War, The Concluding Theme Of This Exercise, Is The Saturation Point Of Himan Efforts To Subjugate And Dominate Others. The Scholars Writing In This Section Critically Survey The Various Kinds Of War-Conventional, Linited And Nuclear-And A Detailed And Insightful Analysis Of The Cold War By The Editor Completes The Picture. This Volume Will Prove Invaluable To Scholars And Students Of South Asian Studies, History, Political Science And International Relations, And Defence Studies Alike.

This book explores new directions in the study of China’s borderlands. In addition to assessing the influential perspectives of other historians, it engages innovative approaches in the author’s own research. These studies probe regional accommodations, the intersections of borderland management, martial fortification, and imperial culture, as well as the role of governmental discourse in defining and preserving restive boundary regions. As the issue of China’s management of its borderlands grows more pressing, the work presents key information and insights into how that nation’s contested fringes have been governed in the past.

This book provides a timely analysis of the politics, philosophy, and history of Chinese power, focusing on social, strategic, and diplomatic trends that have shaped China for over three thousand years. Chinese elites have used the past to inform the present, but have also mobilized new ideas to address the country’s rapid transition to global power. China’s intellectual world can draw on a surprisingly pluralist legacy. When Chinese thinkers assess “power,” they bring to bear their classical legacy, the military classics, Chinese socialism, and Western political thought. There are also a number of intriguing formulations that give shape to the exercise of Chinese power. Among these are comprehensive national strength, stability preservation, soft power, asymmetric conflict, and counter-intervention strategies. This book looks at key periods in Chinese history when attitudes to power evolved and at their current expressions. These include China’s expanded use of think tanks to chart the future, efforts at creating an eco-civilization to balance growth, and an extended set of security and information capabilities. From observing the centrality of power in today’s international affairs, the book moves to the foundational concepts of Chinese governance: its belief in a strategic configuration of power—as understood in military contexts—as well as its growing diplomatic and maritime engagement abroad. This analysis culminates in new ideas of functional multipolarity. Power is also deployed internally: China’s use of nationalism as a major tool for state-building and cohesion, the ongoing role of socialism, and the People’s Liberation Army are all examined in this light. China’s current strategic culture has shaped President Xi Jinping’s search for a new model of power for China in the twenty-first century, an endeavor that will have serious implications for the future global order. This book provides an alternative perspective on China’s trajectory towards a revised international system.