Liu Tao.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to Professor Al Nofi and his CIC # 385 we have this item of interest.

Sun Tzu and the "Art of War" hardly unique, Chinese military strategists and tacticians, those commanders, practitioners of the operational art as understood for a period of at least fifteen hundred [1,500] years having at their disposal an even more detailed treatise those students of war being able to avail themselves of.

"Liutao 六韜 'The Six Secret [Teachings]'"

"The first two chapters, Wentao and wutao deal with political strategy and are based on Confucian, Daoist, legalist and strategist thinking. The four other chapters describe troop formations, equipment, command and  tactics, personal abilities of troops and commanders, training, transmission of orders and messages, logistics, and special tactics depending on circumstances. Various types of warfare are described in detail, like siege war, war of defense and attack, pursuit of inimical troops, battle in mountains, in forest, in swamps, at night, chariot attack, cavalry and infantry attack, and the war with fire. All these practical tactics are described much more detailed than other military books like Sunzi [Sun Tzu] bingfa, Wuzi or Weiliaozi."

Those various Chinese kingdoms at constant war with one another during that time of what is called the "warring states" until the creation of the Chin Empire and the consolidation of centralized rule, many experts and commanders having an intimate knowledge of warfare, the compilation of those tactics, methods, means, strategies that allowed for the winning way NOT confined merely to Sun Tzu!!

So much to know and so little time to know it all. We only touch the tip of the iceberg and barely even that. Everyday something new and we are all the better for it.

coolbert.