On this blog, I intend to translate and analyze the The Art of War, by Sunzi. There are already numerous excellent translations available in English. It is not my goal to compete with these. However, I do have a couple of insights to offer to this topic that some people might find of value.
Of all of the many versions of The Art of War that are available of which I am aware, all come in very verbose form. That is, translators seem to always attempt to insert lots of meaning into their translated text, when in fact the original is quite terse and short on words. We readers therefore have to understand through the interpretation of the translator, and so have only a secondhand relationship to the original text.
The first thing that I have to offer is that I intend to present and to analyze the individual Chinese characters themselves, so that I, and you readers, can to a much greater degree translate the text for ourselves. I believe that the closer we are to the original Chinese characters, the more powerful the message will be.
For example, consider the Lionel Giles translation of the last clause of Sentence 1 of Chapter 1 of the book:
Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected
This translation contains 14 English words, which is quite wordy. Most Chinese concepts are represented by a single character, by a pair of 2 characters, or by a pair of pairs, of 4 characters. In the Chinese version of the book, this clause is represented by 4 characters: 不可不察. The first pair, 不可, means ‘not can’; in other words ‘cannot’. The second pair, 不察, means ‘not investigate’. The literal meaning of the 4 characters is ‘cannot not investigate’. This is quite succinct. The implication is that ‘(we) cannot not investigate (war)’. Yes, the 14 word Giles translation has similar meaning, but I want to give us the opportunity, wherever possible, to analyze the individual characters ourselves, so that we can develop a deeper context for understanding our English translation of choice.
Many translators speak of the tremendous influence of the Dao on this work. However, in my mind, they seem to leave that influence for the most part unexplored.
The second thing that I have to offer is that I am quite familiar with the concepts of the Dao, which seem to permeate this book. To many, the Dao is mystical, and they leave it at that. However, the Dao is also quite concrete, and can be explored like that. I have studied the Dao for more than 20 years, near the beginning of which I studied Chinese medicine in China for a year. The Dao forms the basis of Chinese medicine. In this context, the Dao is studied in a scientific-like manner. I have also read more than 100 books on Chinese medicine, most in Chinese, all of which begin with an introduction to the Dao.
In Lionel Giles translation of The Art of War, in Sentence 2 of Chapter 1 of the book, the word Dao is translated as “Moral Law.” To me, this is a very abstract and non-useful translation. Furthermore, like all other translations that I have seen, it seems to completely sidestep the opportunity to introduce the philosophical and cultural context for this book. This sentence expresses the author’s orientation to the Dao.
Therefore, my goals here are to provide us the ability to analyze the individual characters in their simplicity and power, in order to get to the core of their meaning, and to examine the prevalence of influence and the significance of the concepts of the Dao referenced within this book.
A few comments:
1. I plan to translate one sentence each week. I will create a separate web page devoted to each sentence. At the top of each page, I will display the Lionel Giles translation, for comparison, followed by my translation. I will do so because the Giles translation was published in 1910, and so is not only the first translation into English that is still important today but also it is in the public domain. In other words, it is available to all for free on various web sites, such as here, and so is very commonly cited.
2. Lionel Giles published the first translation of the Art of War into English that is still important today. He used the Wade-Giles method of Romanization of Chinese characters. This was developed by his father, Herbert Giles. It seems that later translators have also chosen to use the Wade-Giles system. I prefer to use pin yin. Pin-yin was developed in China and is used exclusively there. Pin-yin is a much more modern system, and it is a living system, since it is in use in China. The Wade-Giles system is a relic of previous times. Although there are a few letters that English speakers will have problems with, I think that the number of problems will be far fewer than with the Wade-Giles system. Instead of Sun Tzu, I write Sunzi. Instead of Tao, I write Dao. And so on. One advantage of pin-yin is that saying Dao, with a D, sounds much better to Chinese speakers than saying Tao, with a T.
3. All translators of Sunzi appear to have numerous difficulties with understanding in many locations in the book. This should seem quite natural, since The Art of War is a very complex work, written long ago for a very different culture, by a man who was strong on understanding but few of words, and where much of the meaning is available only by reading between the characters. Because translators typically present us only with their completely translated works, and because we have no access to their understandings of the various parts, we cannot analyze their interpretation of individual characters, but can only consider sentences in their entirety. On the other hand, because I try to clearly lay out my thinking, step by step, on the Internet, my completed translation is very conducive to analysis and participation by everyone. If you would like to discuss or comment on any interpretation of any particular character or clause, please feel free to do so. There is a Discussion Forum on this site, in case anyone wants to ask questions or post/read comments.
4. I have noticed that many people look at the words “Sun Tsu” and pronounce them like sun as in sun and moon and like su as in super. Sunzi should be pronounced differently. The vowel in sun and in zi is the same. Consider the vowel of good and of put. Both have the same sound, although the oo of good is slightly longer duration than the u of put. For sun, use the longer duration oo of good, and for zi, use the shorter duration u of put. For sun, say the word swoon, pronouncing the vowel as in good. For zi, say zoo using the vowel as in put.
5. I plan to provide a series of translations for each sentence, with 1 sentence per page.
a) At the top of each page, I will provide the Giles translation, followed by my complete translation. The translation process will then begin.
b) First, I will give the original Chinese characters, with an attempt at a literal translation of the words into English.
c) This will be followed by a breakdown of each sentence by clause. Where a literal translation cannot be provided, the translated words will be enclosed within {}, in order to inform the reader that this is my selection of an appropriate English equivalent.
d) A second translation will be the same as the first, except that where there are words that are not required and so not included in the Chinese that must nevertheless be included in the English translation, such as ‘the’, such words will be enclosed within () in order to make the translation sound more natural.
e) A third translation will add words, in (), that I feel should be added to enable greater contextual understanding of the clause.
f) The next translation will be more wordy, where I insert more contextual phrases within (), in order to supply my complete interpretation of the intent of the clause.
g) The final translation will be the same as the previous, but in normal English appearance, as my finished translation of the sentence. Note that not all sentences will require all of these stages of translation.
h) Following the translation for each sentence, I will include my commentary to explore some of the concepts involved, provide insight into individual characters, and as a guide in pronunciation.