THE CYCLIC WHOLENESS OF BING, TAO AND LAW IN SUN TZU'S THE ART OF WAR
The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Pingyin: Sunzi Bing Fa)is well-known as one of the oldest writings in Chinesehistory attributed to an individual author. It is the mostfamous treatise of the Military School (Bingjia), of TheHundred Schools of Thought of the Pre-Qin and Han period.However, the text is often misunderstood in the based uponthe misunderstanding of its terms. Readers and scholarsoften interpret the text in a pragmatic or utilitarian way,ignoring its philosophical Taoist subtexts. In the text, theterm translated as war – Bing – is related to two complicatedphilosophical terms and concepts: Tao (Dao) and Law (Fa).Therefore, for fully understanding Sun Tzu's philosophicaltreatise on Bing, this paper will investigate, how changesof Tao (Dao) and Law (Fa) in relation to Bing occur in aholistic cycle. Bing, Tao and Law must be coordinated,otherwise any operation whether military or political willnot be in conformity with the Grand Tao, and will not beable to achieve its aims.