The Gap in Understanding
Sun Tzu's book is one of the most valuable
works in human history, but mastering its principles from just reading it is
like mastering geometry by simply reading Euclid.
Simply reading an English translation of Sun Tzu give you
very little idea of his methods. There are a number of
serious barriers that stand in the way of understanding the text.
If you
compare different English
translations, you begin to understand the challenges in translating
this work. Unfortunately, even when well-translated,
We
also cannot understand the original text without understanding its
underlying
cultural context and roots in Chinese science, especially its
methods of diagramming relationships.
