Q 01/05

The name Sun Tzu is an honorific meaning what?

A) Old Sun

B) General Sun

C) Lord Sun

D) Master Sun

Answer · why

D) Master Sun

Master Sun: 'tzu' (zi in modern spelling) is a title of respect given to revered teachers, the same suffix as in Kongzi, 'Master Kong', the Chinese na...

Q 02/05

Sun Tzu wrote that supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without what?

A) Warning

B) Fighting

C) Mercy

D) Allies

Answer · why

B) Fighting

Fighting: to win every battle is not the highest skill, he argues; best of all is to foil the enemy's plans, and the worst policy is to besiege walled...

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

Roughly how long after Sun Tzu's supposed lifetime was his first biography written?

A) 10 years

B) 40 years

C) 400 years

D) 1,200 years

Answer · why

C) 400 years

400 years: tradition places him around 500 BC, but the first biography dates from the 90s BC, a gap that is one reason some scholars doubt he existed ...

Q 05/05

Sun Tzu's last chapter says foreknowledge of the enemy can only come from which people?

A) Spies

B) Envoys

C) Merchants

D) Prisoners

Answer · why

A) Spies

Spies: he lists five kinds, among them 'doomed spies', deliberately fed false information to pass on to the enemy.