High
An exact passage was located in the cited edition, or the origin is documented by a named research source.
About & method
What Icons is, who edits it, and how a quote earns a seal. The short version: free, Eastern canon only, and no verdict without a source.
What Icons is
Icons is free. It reads the Eastern strategy canon — The Art of War, the 36 Stratagems, the Legalists, the strategists from Sun Tzu to Chanakya — for readers in the West and in India.
There is no paywall and no course. Every quote we publish carries a verdict, a cited edition, and a confidence level.
Who edits it
Editor
Hector Obon
Hector Obon is the editor and makes the final call on every verdict, against the cited text.
The verification method
Four steps, in this order. We do not publish a verdict we cannot trace.
01
Find the passage
Search the classical text, chapter by chapter, for the idea — not only the English words.
02
Compare translations
Check the wording against a public-domain translation: Lionel Giles, 1910, for The Art of War; James Legge for the Analects and the Tao Te Ching.
03
Give a verdict
Verified, paraphrase, or fake — or unclear, when the text itself is disputed.
04
Seal it
The editor signs off. The seal records the verdict, the confidence, and the date.
The four verdicts
A seal is a verdict, not a decoration.
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VerifiedThe wording matches a passage in the cited edition, or it is a faithful rendering of that passage.
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ParaphraseThe idea is in the text. The popular wording is not.
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FakeThe line is not in the source it is pinned on. We say so, and we name a nearer real passage when there is one.
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UnclearThe text or the reading is disputed. We say what is disputed instead of forcing a seal.
Confidence
Confidence is how sure the verdict is. We publish high and medium only.
Medium
Absence is confirmed in the cited texts, but the true origin is not documented.
Low
Not published. We do not publish low-confidence verdicts.
Sources and editions
Verdicts cite these editions and research works. We do not invent quotations or page numbers.
- The Art of War: the Chinese received text, and Lionel Giles, 1910, public domain. Project Gutenberg #132 (opens in a new tab)
- The Analects: James Legge, public domain. Project Gutenberg #3330 (opens in a new tab)
- The Tao Te Ching: James Legge, public domain. Project Gutenberg #216 (opens in a new tab)
- The 36 Stratagems: the Chinese Wikisource edition. English lines on Icons are working drafts, pending review. Wikisource, 三十六計 (opens in a new tab)
- Shiji 史记, the Records of the Grand Historian. Wikisource, 史記 (opens in a new tab)
- Sanguozhi 三国志, the Records of the Three Kingdoms. Wikisource, 三國志 (opens in a new tab)
- The Book of Southern Qi 南齐书. Wikisource, 南齊書 (opens in a new tab)
- Research used to trace modern misquotations: Quote Investigator (opens in a new tab), Wikiquote (opens in a new tab), Victor H. Mair (opens in a new tab).
Translations
Chinese originals and pinyin are never translated. They stay as in the source.
English renderings of the 36 Stratagems lines are Icons working drafts, pending review.
All non-English pages are machine translations, pending human review.
AI disclosure
Drafts are prepared with AI assistance and checked against the cited sources. The editor decides the verdict. Non-English pages are machine translations, pending human review.
Corrections
Found an error? No email address is published yet. Corrections will open with the newsletter. Until then we collect no messages and no addresses. Newsletter, when it opens
What we don’t do
- No courses, no coaching, and no paid products.
- No stoicism and no Western self-help. This library is the Eastern canon.
- No invented quotations, dates, or citations.