Q 01/05

The name Sun Tzu is an honorific. What does it mean?

A) Old Sun

B) General Sun

C) Sun of Wu

D) Master Sun

Answer · why

D) Master Sun

His birth name was said to be Sun Wu, and he was known posthumously by the courtesy name Changqing.

Q 02/05

What was Sun Tzu's birth name said to be?

A) Sun Jian

B) Sun Quan

C) Sun Bin

D) Sun Wu

Answer · why

D) Sun Wu

Some scholars think the name is an invented cognomen meaning roughly 'the fugitive warrior'.

Q 03/05

Which Han-dynasty historian wrote the earliest account of Sun Tzu's life, in the Shiji?

A) Sima Guang

B) Liu Xiang

C) Ban Gu

D) Sima Qian

Answer · why

D) Sima Qian

The sinologist Victor Mair considers that short biography 'essentially fictional'.

Q 04/05

Around what year was the Shiji biography of Sun Tzu written?

A) 97 BC

B) 200 BC

C) 350 BC

D) 480 BC

Answer · why

A) 97 BC

That puts the first written record of him some four centuries after he supposedly lived.

Q 05/05

Traditional historians placed Sun Tzu as a minister to which king?

A) Goujian of Yue

B) Huan of Qi

C) Helü of Wu

D) Ping of Chu

Answer · why

C) Helü of Wu

They dated his lifetime to 544–496 BC, though his historical existence is uncertain.