"Sun Tzu, The Art of War, and the History of Martial Arts"
by Gary Gagliardi (This article is based on the more extensive historical work found in The Ancient Bing-fa: Martial Arts Strategy)

Unlike other sports and exercise programs, the martial arts train the whole person—body, spirit, and mind. Down through the millennia, the knowledge on which the martial arts are based—known in China as the Bing-fa—was suppressed. Today, most of those who practice martial arts are unfamiliar with these principles except in how they have become embodied in martial arts practice.

Martial arts are different because they are designed for self-defense and self-development. They exploit a loophole in the natural law. Nature says that the strong dominate the weak and the quick beat the slow. The martial arts teach that through the use of knowledge and training, a warrior can transform a stronger opponent into a weaker one.

This loophole was first discovered and explained 2,500 years ago. Today, we know this work as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The Chinese title is Sunzi Bing-fa, which literally means "Master Sun’s Martial Arts." The stateless warrior named Sun Wu of Qi grew up in a family of mercenaries, learning from birth all challenges of battle. His work explained for the first time that what people thought of as power--size, strength, and wealth--were not real power but only the illusion of power. Those who understood the true nature of power could easily defeat these larger foes by leveraging their supposed strengths against them.

Sun Wu proved his philosophy as a commander. He was hired by a poor, semi-barbaric kingdom called Wu. Training the world's first civilian army, Sun Wu led his forces to conquer all the larger, richer, and more technologically advanced kingdoms of the Yang-tze river valley.

After his death, Sun Tzu’s success led to the emulation of his methods throughout the states of China. The use of citizen armies created wide access to weapons and martial arts training. Professional mercenary families gave rise to history’s first professional martial artists. The first such martial artists are introduced in the Spring and Summer Annals of Wu and Yue when the old man Yuan Gong met the young swordswoman Yue Nu in battle. These early martial artists eventually became demigods in the Chinese pantheon.

Around 298 B.C., the historian Zhuang Zi recorded that life in the state of Zhoa had become prosperous because of the practice of martial arts using the sword. King Wen of Zhoa invited more than three thousand sword martial artists to practice against one another in his court. Zhuang Zi said that Sun Tzu’s theory had been incorporated into the martial arts techniques of both offense and defense and of both armed and unarmed combat. Sun Tzu’s ideas were the fundamental principles in the Book of Sword Fighting and Internal Boxing (Nei kia Quan), both published late in the Warring States Period.

Sun Tzu’s methods, originally taught in the context of larger wars, were now seen as the key to individual contests. In armed contest, Sun Tzu’s lessons on positioning are echoed in Zhuang Zi’s description of the key methods used. "The best sword fighters," he wrote, "pretended to be without preparation as if offering an opening to the enemy. They then gained mastery by striking only after the enemy has struck."

Sun Tzu's descendent, Sun Bing (Sun Ping) re-popularized the work of Sun Wu.  Eventually this teaching made its way to a young nobleman named Ying Zheng. Using the ancient secrets of the Bing-fa, Ying Zheng became the ruler of his kingdom, Qin and began conquering neighboring kingdoms. By 221 B.C., Ying became the first emperor of all of China in the third century B.C., changing his name to Qin Shi Huangdi.

From that time, the Bing-fa was kept secret, passed down only to those of royal blood. While practicing the Bing-fa themselves, various Chinese emperors promoted other, less aggressive philosophies, first Taoism and later Buddhism, in connection with the martial arts. Though its complete philosophy was hidden, martial arts practice took the form of a physical exercise known as Tai Chi Chuan (The Grand Ultimate Fist) that became popular in China in about the 3rd Century A.D. By the 5th century, monks at the Buddhist monastery of Shao Lin were advancing the physical science, who may have received a secret copy of the text of the Bing-Fa from one of the royal family of China who were now Buddhists. This was the beginning of what was known as Kung-Fu (literally, "hard work"). The philosophy was spread both through armed combat and unarmed combat (since peasants were denied arms) through all of Asia.  

Over the centuries, the martial arts too a myriad of forms, spreading out from China.  These skills are known collectively in China today as Wu Shu ("Martial Skills). In Korea, they were originally called Mu Sool (martial arts) but the most popular Korean forms today are from Japanese influence, known as Hap Ki Do (total arts school) and Tae Kwon Do (art of kicking and punching). In Japan, the main martial arts are Daito Ryu Yawara (eastern style soft skills, sometime called Jujitsu), Aikido (way of spiritual harmony) Karate (empty hand), Judo (gentle way), Kendo (way of the sword). More recently, the Philippines developed Escrima (skirmish) and Arnis (arnis de mano meaning "harness of the hand"). All this form

As you can tell from their names, all of these schools preserve the Bing-fa’s original concept of leveraging knowledge, focus, and balance against raw size and strength. Several martial arts schools use the "Before Heaven" version of the Ba-Gua as a training tool. As we show in our Amazing Secrets book, this diagram is the basis for understanding the Bing-fa. However, we didn't realize that connection until a reader who was also a martial arts student pointed it out.  The Ba-Gua is studies especially in several schools of Tai Chi, which makes sense because that art dates closest to the period of Sun Tzu.

The original text of the Bing-fa was also preserved and passed down among the noble houses of China. Though dynasties changed, its secrets were kept from the common people, reserved for the powerful. As China entered the modern era, several versions of this text made their way to the West, first through a Jesuit missionary, who translated it into French at the end of the 18^th century. The translation fell into the hand of a young French officer who used it to become the leader of the French army and eventually, the emperor of Europe. We know him as Napoleon.

As the text of the Bing-Fa became more broadly known, Sun Wu became known as "Master Sun," that is, Sun Tzu. Those who misunderstood his work and its philosophy translated the term Bing-Far into English as The Art of War.

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