Military Books (bingjia lei 兵家類)

Military Treatises (bingjia lei 兵家類) is a subcategory in traditional Chinese bibliographies and part of the category of Masters and Philosophers (zibu 子部). In the oldest imperial bibliography, the Qilüe 七略, they were separated from the more philosophical schools of the "masters and philosophers". In the imperial bibliography Yiwenzhi 藝文志 of the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書, their writings are still to be found in a separate category and were later placed in the second position of the masters, just after the Confucians. The series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 includes 20 books in this section, while the descriptive catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 includes more 47 texts that were "existing" (cunmu 存目), but not included in the series.

The most important representatives of the military thinkers are Sun Wu 孫武 (Sunzi 孫子) and Sima Rangju 司馬穰苴 from the Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE), Sun Bin 孫臏, Wu Qi 吳起, Wei Liao 尉繚, Shang Yang 商鞅; Pang Nuan 龐煖, Wang Liao 王廖, Er Liang 兒良, Wei Wuji 魏無忌 (Lord Xinling 信陵君), Zhao She 趙奢 and Bai Qi 白起 from the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE), as well as Zhang Liang 張良, Han Xin 韓信, Xiang Yu 項羽 and Li Guang 李廣 from the founding years of the Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE).

Not all of them compiled books, and of those compiled, only a small percentage has survived. The books mentioned in the early bibliographies are Wu Sunzi 吳孫子 (i. e. the Sunzi bingfa 孫武兵法), Qi Sunzi 齊孫子 (i. e. the Sun Bin bingfa 孫臏兵法), Wu Qi 吳起 (today known as Wuzi 吳子), Weiliaozi 尉繚子, a book by Han Xin 韓信, and the Li jiangjun shefa 李將軍射法. Six of the ancient classics have later been incorporated into a canon of military writings, namely the Sunzi, Wuzi, Weiliaozi, Simafa 司馬法, Liutao 六韜 and Huangshigong sanlüe 黃石公三略. The Sun Bin bingfa was rediscovered in 1972 in a Han period tomb in Yinqueshan 銀雀山 near Linyi 臨沂, Shandong.