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Sun Tzu may have been a great general, but the fact is, he was a civil war general. Any genreal who gains a reputation for killing his fellow countrymen deserves less credit. If you want to note a great Chinese general in Classical times, I suggest Wu Di, the man beat the Huns, THE HUNS!!!
Going to the whole Hitite episode The Hitites were aware of the ideas at the same time and perhaps earlier than Sun Tzu wrote. For instance in CHapter 1, Sun Tzu writes:
18.All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we
are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Well unless the Hitites had a crystal ball, they knew what was up. I think what makes Sun Tzu great was he was the only one smart enough to write down the obvious, I mean he didnt just wake up one morning and say I can fight. He speak about the generalities of maintaining an army not of tactics.
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