Summary of Chapters

In thirteen chapters, Sun Tzu defines a sophisticated science in a deliberative manner. The book itself is written in a highly condensed form, where each stanza plays a key role in the development of its ideas.

The first two chapters and the final one (the work is written in a circle) concentrate on positional strategy, the methods for mapping the relative strengths and weakness of competitive positions.

The middle chapters concentrate on expansion strategy, which identifies and explores opportunities to advance and build up positions.

The penultimate section of the book explores situation response, which specifies the responses required to address a specific competitive situations.