One Dream Thousands of Years

When Thales was pondering over the originating principle of nature in Miletus, a man in the East was writing a book, the global popularity of which in the centuries to come went well beyond his wildest imagination. The man's name was Sun Wu, (more commonly known as Sun Zi or Sun Tzu, meaning "Master Sun") and the book is none other than "The Art of War", which together with Clausewitz's On War is widely acclaimed to be the most influential treatises on military strategy in history. Sun Zi During the turbulent Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 B.C. - 256 B.C.),  China was politically fragmented with dozens of states competing for dominance. Constant wars turned out to be fertile ground for cultivating ambitious military strategists, and Sun Zi was among the best of them. His masterpiece "The Art of War" was developed largely based on his experience serving as a general in the kingdom of Wu (today's Jiangsu Province, see our map of Chinese state

Today's post features the most famous bronze sword of ancient China. Figure 1: The Sword of Goujian, Hubei Provincial Museum You may have seen many ancient swords in museums all around the world, yet this one remains the most distinctive in many ways. Firstly, it is one of the oldest of its kind in the world, dating back to the late Spring and Autumn period ( 770–476 B.C.). Throughout this period as China remained politically fragmented with dozens of states competing for dominance, the state of Yue on the southeast coast (today's Zhejiang Province) was renowned for making the best bronze swords. The Sword of Goujian, named after its owner, the most accomplished king of Yue, is the cream of the crop. Figure 2: The chronological timeline from  Liangzhu  (Neolithic Age) to Eastern Zhou Dynasty (end of Bronze Age) Figure 3: The map of Chinese states in the Spring and Autumn period The second special feature of this sword lies in the fact that it was st