Sun Tzu was a Chinese military strategist, writer and philosopher. Sun Tzu is credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking. Sun Tzu is revered as a legendary historical and military figure in Chinese and East Asian culture.
The Art of War has been an influence for many notable figures. Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist leader, partially credited his 1949 victory over Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang to The Art of War. The work influenced Mao’s writings about guerrilla warfare, which further influenced communist insurgencies around the world.
The Art of War was also popular among Japanese generals like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu and it significantly affected the unification of Japan in the early modern era.
Ho Chi Minh, the legendary Vietnamese revolutionary, translated the work for his Vietnamese officers to study. Võ Nguyên Giáp, Minh’s general and the strategist behind victories over French and American forces in Vietnam, was a practitioner of Sun Tzu’s ideas.