Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ 孫臏兵法
Sun Bin’s Art of Warfare by 孫臏 (Sūn Bìn, fl. ca. 380–316 BCE, 周; 撰)
About the work
The Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ 孫臏兵法 is a military treatise attributed to Sūn Bìn 孫臏, a Warring States strategist and master tactician who served the state of Qí 齊 in the mid-4th century BCE. The work had been lost since the end of the Hàn dynasty and was unknown to all subsequent generations except through brief notices in early bibliographic catalogues. It was dramatically rediscovered, written on bamboo slips, in Tomb No. 1 at Yínquèshān 銀雀山, Línyí 臨沂, Shandong, in April 1972 — co-buried with portions of the Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ 孫子兵法 (KR3b0024), the Wèiliáozǐ (KR3b0026), the Liù tāo (KR3b0027), and the Shǒufǎ shǒulìng (KR3b0028).
This file contains the 16 identified chapters of the Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ together with a cluster of supplementary texts. The named chapters include: Qín Páng Juān 擒龐涓 (Capturing Páng Juān), Jiàn Wēi Wáng 見威王 (Audience with King Wēi), Wēi Wáng Wèn 威王問 (King Wēi’s Questions), Chén Jì Wèn Lěi 陳忌問壘 (Tián Jì Asks about Fortifications), Zuǎn zú 篡卒 (Elite Troops), Yuè zhàn 月戰 (Monthly Warfare), Bā zhèn 八陣 (Eight Formations), Dì bǎo 地葆 (Terrain Treasure), Shì bèi 勢備 (Preparation of Configuration), Bīng qíng 兵情 (Military Conditions), Xíng zuǎn 行篡 (Organization on the March), Shā shì 殺士 (Galvanising the Troops), and Yán qì 延氣 (Extending Spirit-Energy). The fifteen supplemental chapters identified in the 1975 preliminary edition are also represented in the slips.
Prefaces
This is an excavated bamboo-slip text; it carries no traditional preface or postface.
Abstract
Sūn Bìn 孫臏 (fl. ca. 380–316 BCE) — the Bìn epithet meaning “knee-capping,” the mutilation inflicted on him by a jealous fellow-student — was a native of the Qí region (modern western Shandong). He studied military strategy under the hermit Guǐgǔzǐ 鬼谷子 alongside Páng Juān 龐涓. Páng later framed him for treason while both served in the state of Wèi; Sun was branded and had his kneecaps removed, effectively ending his ability to command in the field. He escaped to Qí with the help of a Qí envoy, was recommended by General Tián Jì 田忌 to King Wēi 威王 (r. 357–320 BCE), and served as a staff strategist (not a field commander, owing to his disability) in the famous campaigns that defeated Wèi at Guīlíng 桂陵 (354 BCE) and Mǎlíng 馬陵 (341 BCE). The battle narrative in the Qín Páng Juān 擒龐涓 chapter provides an insider account of the Mǎlíng campaign.
The Hàn shū yìwén zhì 漢書藝文志 records Sūn Bìn 孫臏 in 89 chapters (piān), under the Bīngquán móu 兵權謀 (Military Stratagems) category. The work had completely disappeared by the time of the Suí shū jīngjí zhì 隋書經籍志. Because so little evidence survived, some modern scholars had even doubted whether Sūn Bìn had existed as a historical person distinct from the Sūnzǐ author. The 1972 Yínquèshān discovery definitively resolved this doubt: the Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ slips are a text clearly distinct from the Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ slips co-buried in the same tomb, demonstrating that the two traditions were already separate by the early Western Hàn.
The text recovered is far shorter than the 89 chapters (piān) cited in the Hàn shū; the 16 identified chapters (plus the 15 supplemental fragments) represent a small fraction of what the Hàn shū recorded. Whether the Hàn shū count refers to the same work or to a longer version is unknown. The text is commonly divided into an “upper section” (shàng biān 上編; the 16 identified chapters) and a “lower section” (xià biān 下編; supplementary fragments). The content of the upper section is more narrative and anecdotal; the lower section is more theoretical and doctrinal, dealing with formations, morale, timing, terrain, and command.
The work reflects the military reality of the later Warring States: more intensive use of the crossbow, the growing importance of cavalry, and the prominence of siege warfare — shifts that differentiate it from the earlier Sūnzǐ tradition, which advises against prolonged sieges. The Wēi Wáng Wèn and Tián Jì Wèn Sūnzǐ 田忌問孫子 sections preserve extended dialogues of strategic question-and-answer between King Wēi, the general Tián Jì, and Sūn Bìn, providing unique evidence for late-4th-century Qí military thinking.
The editorial history: a 1975 preliminary transcription (made from the 1972 original photographs) was issued internally; a preliminary published edition appeared in 1975 as Línquèshān Hànmù bōhuā 臨沂漢墓帛畫; the authoritative edition is Yínquèshān Hànmù zhújiǎn 銀雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1 (Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1985). Note that 15 of the “supplemental” chapters had been tentatively listed in the 1975 edition as lower-section Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ chapters; subsequent re-examination classified some of these as belonging instead to the Lùnzhèng lùnbīng 論政論兵 miscellany published in vol. 2 (2010).
Composition date: The text was composed during or shortly after Sūn Bìn’s active life, and was available in the early Western Hàn (before ca. 140–118 BCE, when the tomb was sealed). Terminus post quem: Sūn Bìn’s fl. dates, ca. 380 BCE. Terminus ante quem: the tomb-sealing date, ca. 118 BCE. Bracketed here at ca. 380–220 BCE for the main corpus.
Translations and research
- Lau, D. C., and Roger T. Ames, tr. 2003. Sun Bin: The Art of Warfare. SUNY Press. — complete English translation of the 16-chapter version plus the 15 supplemental chapters, with long introduction. Standard Western reference.
- Lǐ Líng 李零. 2009. Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ jiàozhù 孫臏兵法校注. Zhōnghuá shūjú. — authoritative Chinese annotated edition.
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual (6th edn, 2022), §26.5.2 (Sūn Bìn), §59.7.2.2 (Yínquèshān slips).
- Boorman, Scott A. 2024. Three Faces of Sun Tzu. Cambridge U.P. — includes comparative analysis of the Sūnzǐ and Sūn Bìn traditions.
- Yínquèshān Hànmù zhújiǎn 銀雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1. Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1985. — principal edition.
Other points of interest
The Qín Páng Juān 擒龐涓 chapter is the sole contemporary (or near-contemporary) narrative of the Battle of Mǎlíng 馬陵 (341 BCE), in which Páng Juān was killed and the Wèi army decisively defeated. Its account of how Sūn Bìn advised Tián Jì to feign retreat (reducing the number of cooking fires night by night to suggest desertion) is one of the most celebrated episodes in Chinese strategic lore, and appears in slightly different form in Shǐjì 史記 j. 65 and j. 75. The Yínquèshān version is the oldest written witness.