Sun Tzu vs Machiavelli

Who were Sun Tzu and Machiavelli?

Sun Tzu, or Sunzi, “Master Sun”, is the traditional author of The Art of War (Sunzi bingfa), thirteen short chapters on strategy. Almost all we know of the man comes from one biography written about 91 BCE by the historian Sima Qian in the Records of the Grand Historian (chapter 65). It says Sun Wu came from the state of Qi, impressed King Helü of Wu, and helped Wu defeat the larger state of Chu around 506 BCE. Many scholars think the book as we have it was put together later, in the Warring States period (5th to 4th century BCE), and some doubt the man existed as described. Our article did Sun Tzu exist sets out the evidence. A copy on bamboo strips found in a Han dynasty tomb at Yinqueshan in 1972 shows the text was in circulation by the 2nd century BCE.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence on 3 May 1469. From 1498 to 1512 he served the Florentine Republic as secretary of the Second Chancery, travelling as an envoy to the French court, the emperor and Cesare Borgia. When the Medici returned to power in 1512 he lost his post; in 1513 he was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and tortured, then released. On his farm at Sant'Andrea in Percussina he wrote The Prince in 1513 and the Discourses on Livy over the next years. The Prince was published only in 1532, five years after his death on 21 June 1527.

The Art of War vs The Prince: comparison table

Did Machiavelli read Sun Tzu?

No. The Art of War was unknown in Europe until Amiot's French version appeared in Paris in 1772, 245 years after Machiavelli died. The first full English translation by Lionel Giles came in 1910. Any likeness between the two books comes from two careful observers of war and politics reaching similar conclusions, not from influence.

To add to the confusion, Machiavelli also wrote a book called The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra, 1521). It is a dialogue about armies, drill and the citizen militia, and it was the only one of his major political works printed in his lifetime. When someone says “Machiavelli's Art of War”, check which book they mean.

Where Sun Tzu and Machiavelli agree

Both write about how things are, not how they ought to be, and both expect leaders to use deception.

Machiavelli says in chapter 18 of The Prince that a ruler must know how to act like a beast as well as a man: the lion, which can frighten wolves, and the fox, which can spot traps. A wise prince, he says, need not keep his word when keeping it works against him.

Both value knowledge and preparation. Sun Tzu says that if you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear a hundred battles (chapter 3), and gives a whole chapter to spies (chapter 13). Machiavelli's chapter 14 says a prince should study war in peacetime, through exercise and through reading the histories of great commanders.

Both use water. Sun Tzu compares a well-handled army to water, which has no constant shape and follows the ground (chapter 6). Machiavelli compares fortune to a flooding river and says prudent men build dikes and embankments while the weather is calm (chapter 25).

Where they differ

Fighting. Sun Tzu's ideal is to avoid battle.

Machiavelli is more willing to fight and talks about cruelty openly. In chapter 8 he discusses cruelty that is used well, in his sense: done all at once for security and then stopped. In chapter 17 he concludes that if a prince cannot be both loved and feared, “it is much safer to be feared than loved” (tr. W. K. Marriott), while warning that he must never become hated.

Audience. Sun Tzu writes for the professional commander and spends many pages on terrain, supplies, fire attacks and the morale of troops. Machiavelli writes for a ruler and spends his pages on conquered provinces, advisers, flatterers, reputation and religion.

Politics. The Art of War says almost nothing about kinds of government. Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy argue that republics are more stable than principalities and that the people judge better than a prince in many things. Reading only The Prince gives a one-sided picture of him.

Armies. Machiavelli, who organised a Florentine citizen militia in 1506, is obsessed with the danger of hiring mercenaries (chapters 12 and 13). Sun Tzu assumes a ruler's conscripted army and focuses on discipline: the story in Sima Qian's biography, in which he executes two of the king's favourite concubines to make palace women obey drill orders, is an anecdote and may well be legend.

Famous quotes neither of them wrote

• “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” is in neither book. It is a line from the film The Godfather Part II (1974).
• “The ends justify the means” is not a sentence in The Prince. The nearest passage, in chapter 18, says that people judge a prince's actions by the outcome.
• Many “Sun Tzu quotes” on business posters are modern paraphrases. If a line is not in the thirteen chapters, it is not his. Search a translation such as Giles's, which is free online.

For the method, see how to check if a quote is real.

Questions to ask Sun Tzu and Machiavelli

1. Sun Tzu: what does it actually mean to win without fighting? Give an example.
2. Sun Tzu: did the story of the palace women and the drill really happen?
3. Sun Tzu: how much of the book is yours, and how much did later strategists add?
4. Sun Tzu: why is a long war never good for a state?
5. Machiavelli: did you mean The Prince seriously, or was it a job application to the Medici?
6. Machiavelli: how do you square The Prince with your praise of republics in the Discourses?
7. Machiavelli: what did you learn from watching Cesare Borgia in 1502?
8. Both: is deception in politics different from deception in war?

Yuga lets you put these questions by voice to Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. Both are AI recreations built from their texts and the historical record; Sun Tzu's recreation is based on a traditional attribution, since so little is known of the man. They can be wrong. Quote the books by chapter in your work, not the app.

Which one for your project?

Choose Sun Tzu for a project on strategy, ancient China, or how an old text gets reused in business and sport. The book is short enough to read in an evening.

Choose Machiavelli for a project on Renaissance Italy, political realism, or the gap between a writer's reputation and his actual books. Read The Prince chapters 15 to 18 and his letter to Francesco Vettori of 10 December 1513.

Choose both for a debate about whether leaders may lie. For a third voice from ancient India, read Chanakya vs Machiavelli.