Library

The foundational treatise on military strategy, composed by the legendary general Sun Wu during the late Spring and Autumn period. Thirteen chapters distill the principles of warfare into concise, penetrating maxims that have influenced strategists for over two millennia.

A compilation of political strategies, diplomatic speeches, and historical anecdotes from the Warring States period, organized by state. Edited and arranged by the Han dynasty scholar Liu Xiang from earlier court records and bamboo slip texts.

Fifty-five essays on Legalist political philosophy by Han Fei, a prince of Han who synthesized the traditions of Shang Yang, Shen Buhai, and Shen Dao. Covers rulership technique, institutional control, collected parables, and direct engagement with the Warring States diplomatic situation.

The foundational work of Chinese historiography — all 130 chapters. Basic annals of rulers, chronological tables, treatises on astronomy and economics, hereditary houses of all major states, and biographies of the diplomats, generals, philosophers, assassins, and merchants who shaped the era.

Six chapters on the relationship between politics and warfare by Wu Qi, one of the greatest generals of the Warring States period. Dialogue format between Wu Qi and the Marquis of Wei.

Sixty chapters of military-political strategy presented as dialogues between King Wen, King Wu, and the legendary strategist Jiang Taigong. Covers civil governance, martial strategy, command organization, and tactical operations.

Thirty chapters of military strategy recovered from bamboo strips in the 1972 Yinqueshan tomb excavation. Written by Sun Bin, a descendant of Sun Tzu, covering tactical situations, formations, and terrain analysis.

Twenty-four chapters on military regulations, command structure, and army discipline. A systematic treatise on how to organize, train, and control a large army through standardized procedures and strict accountability.

Eighty-six chapters covering economics, agriculture, military policy, philosophy, and cosmology. Includes the famous ‘Light and Heavy’ theory of economic management and the Inner Workings meditation text.

Twenty-six chapters on Legalist reform by the architect of Qin’s rise to power. Agriculture and warfare as the twin pillars of state strength, military merit over aristocratic birth.

Fourteen chapters of Confucian moral and political philosophy. Human nature is innately good, rulers must govern through benevolence, and the people have the right to reject tyranny.

Universal love against Confucian particularism, condemnation of offensive warfare, defensive military engineering, early Chinese logic and epistemology, and a utilitarian framework for policy.

The Butterfly Dream, Cook Ding’s ox, the useless tree. Thirty-three chapters of Daoist philosophy — the Inner Chapters (1–7) by Zhuangzi himself, the Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters elaborating through parable and polemic.

Thirty-two chapters of pragmatic Confucianism. Human nature is flawed and must be reformed through ritual, education, and social institutions. His students included both Han Fei and Li Si.

Iran's national epic, composed by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD. Five story cycles: the mythological tyrant Zahhak and Kaveh's revolt, Rostam's Seven Trials in demon-haunted Mazandaran, the father-son tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab, the exile and murder of Prince Siavash, and the Fall of the Sasanians from Khosrow Parviz through the Arab conquest. Persian verse with annotated English translation.

The defining work of political realism. Four key episodes from the war between Athens and Sparta: the Funeral Oration, the Melian Dialogue, the Sicilian Expedition, and the destruction of Athens' army. Ancient Greek with interactive word-level morphology — hover for definitions.

The father of history. Croesus and the Oracle, the rise and fall of Cyrus, Xerxes' hubris at the Hellespont, Thermopylae, and Salamis — the great stories of the Persian Wars. Ancient Greek with interactive word-level morphology — hover for definitions.

How a weak peripheral state builds alliances to overthrow a dominant empire. Selected alliance-building episodes from Xenophon's idealized biography of Cyrus the Great — coalition diplomacy, force arithmetic, and the art of turning enemies into allies. The structural parallel to 合縱 (vertical alliance) strategy is near-exact. Ancient Greek with interactive word-level morphology.