The two political classics in this book are the produce of a time of intense turmoil in Chinese history. Dating from the Period of the Warring States (403-221 BC) they anticipate Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince by nearly 2000 years. The Art Of War is the best known of a considerable body of Chinese works on the subject. It analyses the nature of war, and reveals how a victory may be ensured. The Book of Lord Shang is a political treatise for the instruction of rulers. Those texts are anything but armchair strategy or ivory-tower speculation. They are serious, urgent and practical responses to the desperate situations in which they were written. They have been immensely influential both inside and outside China. ISBN Author Tzu Sun / Лао-Цзи