Art of War | The Book of Lord Shang
Translated by Yuan Shibing and J. J. L.Duyvendak. With introductions by Robert Wilkinson. The two political classics in this book are the product of a time of intense turmoil in Chinese history. Dating from the Period of the Warring States (403-221BC), they anticipate Machiavelli's The Prince by nearly 2000 years.
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