The Text of Sun Tzŭ

I have found it difficult to glean much about the history of Sun Tzŭ’s text.
The quotations that occur in early authors go to show that the “13 chapters” of
which Ssu-ma Ch’ien speaks were essentially the same as those now extant.
We have his word for it that they were widely circulated in his day, and can
only regret that he refrained from discussing them on that account. Sun
Hsing-yen says in his preface:—

During the Ch’in and Han dynasties Sun Tzŭ’s Art of War was in
general use amongst military commanders, but they seem to have treated it as a
work of mysterious import, and were unwilling to expound it for the benefit of
posterity. Thus it came about that Wei Wu was the first to write a commentary
on it.

As we have already seen, there is no reasonable ground to suppose that
Ts’ao Kung tampered with the text. But the text itself is often so
obscure, and the number of editions which appeared from that time onward so
great, especially during the T’ang and Sung dynasties, that it would be
surprising if numerous corruptions had not managed to creep in. Towards the
middle of the Sung period, by which time all the chief commentaries on Sun Tzŭ
were in existence, a certain Chi T’ien-pao published a work in 15
chuan entitled “Sun Tzŭ with the collected commentaries of ten writers.”
There was another text, with variant readings put forward by Chu Fu of
Ta-hsing, which also had supporters among the scholars of that period; but in
the Ming editions, Sun Hsing-yen tells us, these readings were for some reason
or other no longer put into circulation. Thus, until the end of the 18th
century, the text in sole possession of the field was one derived from Chi
T’ien-pao’s edition, although no actual copy of that important work was
known to have survived. That, therefore, is the text of Sun Tzŭ which appears
in the War section of the great Imperial encyclopedia printed in 1726, the
Ku Chin T’u Shu Chi Ch’eng. Another copy at my disposal of
what is practically the same text, with slight variations, is that contained in
the “Eleven philosophers of the Chou and Ch’in dynasties” [1758]. And the
Chinese printed in Capt. Calthrop’s first edition is evidently a similar
version which has filtered through Japanese channels. So things remained until
Sun Hsing-yen [1752-1818], a distinguished antiquarian and classical scholar,
who claimed to be an actual descendant of Sun Wu, [36] accidentally discovered
a copy of Chi T’ien-pao’s long-lost work, when on a visit to the library
of the Hua-yin temple. [37] Appended to it was the I Shuo of Cheng
Yu-Hsien, mentioned in the T’ung Chih, and also believed to have
perished. This is what Sun Hsing-yen designates as the “original edition (or
text)”—a rather misleading name, for it cannot by any means claim to set
before us the text of Sun Tzŭ in its pristine purity. Chi T’ien-pao was a
careless compiler, and appears to have been content to reproduce the somewhat
debased version current in his day, without troubling to collate it with the
earliest editions then available. Fortunately, two versions of Sun Tzŭ, even
older than the newly discovered work, were still extant, one buried in the
T’ung Tien, Tu Yu’s great treatise on the Constitution, the other
similarly enshrined in the T’ai P’ing Yu Lan encyclopedia.
In both the complete text is to be found, though split up into fragments,
intermixed with other matter, and scattered piecemeal over a number of
different sections. Considering that the Yu Lan takes us back to the
year 983, and the T’ung Tien about 200 years further still, to the
middle of the T’ang dynasty, the value of these early transcripts of Sun
Tzŭ can hardly be overestimated. Yet the idea of utilizing them does not seem
to have occurred to anyone until Sun Hsing-yen, acting under Government
instructions, undertook a thorough recension of the text. This is his own
account:—

Because of the numerous mistakes in the text of Sun Tzŭ which his editors had
handed down, the Government ordered that the ancient edition [of Chi
T’ien-pao] should be used, and that the text should be revised and
corrected throughout. It happened that Wu Nien-hu, the Governor Pi Kua, and
Hsi, a graduate of the second degree, had all devoted themselves to this study,
probably surpassing me therein. Accordingly, I have had the whole work cut on
blocks as a textbook for military men.

The three individuals here referred to had evidently been occupied on the text
of Sun Tzŭ prior to Sun Hsing-yen’s commission, but we are left in doubt as to
the work they really accomplished. At any rate, the new edition, when
ultimately produced, appeared in the names of Sun Hsing-yen and only one
co-editor Wu Jen-shi. They took the “original edition” as their basis, and by
careful comparison with older versions, as well as the extant commentaries and
other sources of information such as the I Shuo, succeeded in restoring a very
large number of doubtful passages, and turned out, on the whole, what must be
accepted as the closest approximation we are ever likely to get to Sun Tzŭ’s
original work. This is what will hereafter be denominated the “standard text.”

The copy which I have used belongs to a reissue dated 1877. It is in 6 pen,
forming part of a well-printed set of 23 early philosophical works in 83 pen.
[38] It opens with a preface by Sun Hsing-yen (largely quoted in this
introduction), vindicating the traditional view of Sun Tzŭ’s life and
performances, and summing up in remarkably concise fashion the evidence in its
favour. This is followed by Ts’ao Kung’s preface to his edition, and the
biography of Sun Tzŭ from the Shih Chi, both translated above. Then come,
firstly, Cheng Yu-hsien’s I Shuo, [39] with author’s preface, and next, a short
miscellany of historical and bibliographical information entitled Sun Tzŭ Hsu
Lu, compiled by Pi I-hsun. As regards the body of the work, each separate
sentence is followed by a note on the text, if required, and then by the
various commentaries appertaining to it, arranged in chronological order. These
we shall now proceed to discuss briefly, one by one.