By: James Gimian and Barry Boyce
Hardcover Edition
March 2008


The Art of War by Sun Tzu is one of the world’s most profound treatises on strategy and leadership, and it has been a best seller in numerous editions around the world. Perhaps best known for the dictum “win without fighting,” it has attracted millions of readers seeking to understand the underlying dynamics of conflict and victory.

However, for all the popularity of the various editions, The Art of War remains one of the most difficult texts to understand and apply successfully in daily life. This book is one of the first to make Sun Tzu’s lessons accessible and relevant in today’s world.

Though The Art of War comes from an ancient lineage of Chinese military commanders, The Rules of Victory shows that the text is just as valuable and compelling for the ordinary person as it is for the soldier or the business leader. James Gimian and Barry Boyce, who collaborated on the best-selling Denma translation of the text, reveal that The Art of War is not in fact about making war, but is a manual on how to work effectively and artfully with chaotic situations and thorny conflicts.

The Rules of Victory includes a complete translation of the classical text. With engaging case studies and examples drawn from a variety of contexts, readers learn that:

Conflict in life is inevitable, yet we can achieve our objectives without resorting to aggression.

War is any situation that demands hard choices about creation and destruction, life or death.

Victory lies in bringing others around to embracing a larger view—one that includes their own—without ever going to battle.

Dealing effectively with conflict involves becoming comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity, imperfection, and gestation.