Audiobooks by Lionel Giles

The Art Of War: Complete Text of Sun Tzu's Classics, Military Strategy History, Ancient Chinese Mili

"The Art of War, translated by Lionel Giles, is a timeless classic of military strategy and philosophy, offering profound insights that extend far beyond the battlefield. Attributed to the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu, this work distills centuries of warfare wisdom into thirteen concise chapters that explore tactics, leadership, discipline, and the psychology of conflict. Lionel Giles’ celebrated translation, first published in 1910, remains one of the most respected English versions, notable for its clarity, scholarly commentary, and elegant prose. Whether studied as a historical artifact, a guide to strategic thinking, or a manual for personal or professional development, The Art of War continues to influence leaders, thinkers, and readers around the world."

Lionel Giles, Sun Tzu (Author), Erik Abrahams (Narrator)

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The Art Of War: The Classic Work With Comprehensive Annotations From The Greatest Chinese Commentato

"There are many versions of this work in English, and it is included as a useful reflection once one has pondered Daoism’s key texts. The title is properly ‘'Sun Tzu's Military Method'. It was written at the time of the Dao and Zhuang Zi, several centuries before the Lieh Tzu. For fifteen hundred years, it was part of China’s canonical strategic anthology, which became known as the Seven Military Classics. In modern Anglophone culture it is often the only strategic text someone has read, supplanting and exceeding the previous dominant strategic text (von Clausewitz’s On War, 1832, tr. 1874). Leaders from Mao Zedong and Takeda Shingen to Võ Nguyên Giáp and Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. have explicitly acknowledged the book’s influence on them. This translation is notably the second major version of it in English. It follows a translation by Everard Ferguson Calthrop that Giles found deeply contemptible, as one can see from the introduction. It is important to note that most scholars do not consider the Art of War one of the classic Daoist texts. While it is a product and application of the philosophy, it is more of an exegetical monograph than a consideration of the philosophical underpinnings of Daoism. Much like the Zhuang Zi, it takes the core ideas and realizes them in specific practical situations. It does so with such certainty that many contest it as a ‘true’ Daoist work. As you will see from the discussions embedded elsewhere, the key Daoist texts value contradiction and paradox far too much to be as procedurally simple as the Art of War is. It is not clear that this criticism is fair, however. A much kinder perspective is that Daoism’s great failure is in its apparent lack of any utilitarian or social value. While Confucianism provides a balance, Sun Tzu’s work attempts to build a more practical version of Daoism than the key texts allow for."

Lionel Giles, Sun Tzu (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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Lieh Tzu: One Of Daoism's Central Works (alongside the Dao De Jing and Zhuang Zi)

"One of the four central works in Daoism. The Lie-Tzu, or Liezi, was originally thought to have been composed in the same period as the Dao and Zhuang Zi, around the 5th century BCE. However, it is now believed to have been compiled nearly a thousand years later, around 400 CE. Lionel Giles, in fact, was one of the first to call out the Lieh Tzu’s suspicious origins, saying “scholars […] seem to have enjoyed nothing so much as forging, if not the whole, at any rate portions, of the works of ancient authors. Someone even produced a treatise under the name of Lieh Tzu, a philosopher mentioned by Chuang Tzu, not seeing that the individual in question was a creation of Chuang Tzu's brain!” Around 700 CE, it was given a new honorific title, the Chongxu zhenjing or Classic of the Perfect Emptiness, and designated a Daoist classic. The triad of Tao Te Ching, Zhuang Zi, and Lieh Tzu makes a certain logical sense, as each work contrasts the other two. The Dao is deeply abstract, and the Zhuang Zi filled with ethical conundrums and nonsensical stories. The Lieh Tzu is a much more practical work, turning the philosophy into a much more workable framework for thought and action. Most of the chapters are named for famous Chinese characters from history or mythology, and many of the stories are continuations or different perspectives on tales and characters in the Zhuang Zi. In this version, Chapter 7 is excluded. This chapter was not translated by Giles, and occasions a great deal of controversy. It is written in a very different voice and perspective to the other chapters, such that some have described it as ‘hedonistic’ and ‘negative Daoism’. Others have claimed that it must have been written before the author even discovered Daoism."

Lieh Tzu, Lionel Giles (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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Essentials of Daoism: Including: The Sayings of Lao Tzu, The Dao De Jing, Zhuangzi, Lieh Tzu, and Su

"This book comprises five classic works of Chinese mysticism. Culturally, these are the companion works to Confucius’ thoughts, as expanded by Mencius. Confucianism is very much the Apollonian side of Chinese culture. It focuses on matters of ethics, hierarchy, responsibility, and social obligation. Daoism is the other side of the coin, focused on abstraction and uncertainty. The two translators included in this volume were very different men. While they wrote in the same period, their audiences were distinct from one another, and this comes through in their differing approaches to the original texts they are working with. One was a missionary, looking to ensure that his fellow spreaders of the word could understand as completely and correctly as possible the culture that they had come into. The other was a curator at the British Museum, who popularized the first English translations for a thoroughly domestic market."

Chuang Tzu, James Legge, Lao Tzu, Laozi, Lie Yukou, Liezi, Lionel Giles, Sun Tzu, Sun Wu, Zhuang Zhou (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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