The seventh volume of Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, etc. , des Chinois 1 is devoted to the Art of War, and contains, amongst other treatises, Les Treize Articles de Sun-tse , translated from the Chinese by a Jesuit Father, Joseph Amiot. Père Amiot appears to have enjoyed no small reputation as a sinologue in his day, and the field of his labours was certainly extensive. But his so-called translation of the Sun Tzǔ , if placed side by side with the original, is seen at once to be little better than an imposture. It contains a great deal that Sun Tzǔ did not write, and very little indeed of what he did. Here is a fair specimen, taken from the opening sentences of chapter 5:
Preface by Lionel Giles
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