ICONS EASTERN CANON · 東方
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Index — People of the canon · 人物

Eastern strategists.

Twenty-one figures behind the texts: generals, ministers, a Mauryan adviser, a Joseon admiral, a swordsman. The constellation draws the lines between them.

A region is where they acted, not a border around strategy. Open a name for the life, the works, the ideas, and which stories are history.

See the constellation

China

Sun Tzu 孙武 c. 6th–5th c. BC (traditional) General and strategist, traditional author of The Art of WarPeople quote the Art of War every day, and several of the most famous lines are not in the book. Han Feizi 韩非 c. 280–233 BC Prince of Han and the writer who fused Legalist statecraftHan Fei wrote the coldest manual of power in early China, then died in a Qin prison while a king who admired the book still ruled. Shang Yang 商鞅 c. 390–338 BC Reformer of Qin under Duke Xiao, traditional source of Legalist lawQin became the state that could swallow the others after a foreign adviser tied rank to grain and battlefield results, not to birth. Li Si 李斯 c. 280–208 BC Chancellor of Qin who standardised the script and proposed the book burningThe chancellor who standardised an empire's script also proposed which books to burn, and the Shiji says he sent poison to his old classmate. Su Qin 苏秦 d. c. 284 BC Diplomat credited with the vertical alliance against QinSu Qin is sold as the man who locked six states against Qin, but silk letters dug up in 1973 put his career later than that story. Zhang Yi 张仪 d. 309 BC Qin diplomat of the horizontal alliancesZhang Yi's art was the promise that splits a coalition, including a land grant he then cut from six hundred li to six. Confucius 孔子 551–479 BC Teacher of Lu; the figure Legalists and strategists defined themselves againstHalf the moral lines pinned on Confucius are not in the Analects, which he did not write, and which Legalists spent centuries attacking. Mencius 孟子 c. 372–289 BC Confucian thinker who put the people above the rulerMencius told kings that the people outrank the ruler, and that a tyrant who loses the people can be put aside. Han Xin 韩信 d. 196 BC General who won Liu Bang's war against Xiang YuHan Xin won a throne for someone else, explained a victory by putting a river at his own back, and was executed by the court he had made. Cao Cao 曹操 155–220 Late Han warlord, poet, and the earliest surviving commentator on Sun TzuCao Cao held the emperor, won the north, commented on Sun Tzu, and lost at Red Cliffs, while the sneering villain belongs to a later novel. Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 181–234 Chancellor of Shu Han and author of the Longzhong PlanZhuge Liang was a real chancellor with a real plan, while the empty fort, the borrowed arrows, and the borrowed east wind belong to the novel. Sima Yi 司马懿 179–251 Wei commander who outlasted Zhuge Liang and seized the Cao regencySima Yi would not give Zhuge Liang the battle he needed, then pretended to be dying and took Wei's government at the Gaoping Tombs. Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝 1654–1722 Qing emperor who broke the Three Feudatories and set the Russian borderKangxi is an era name, not a surname: a Manchu emperor who broke the feudatories, took Taiwan, and signed China's first treaty with Russia.

Steppe

Genghis Khan 成吉思汗 c. 1162–1227 Mongol unifier, proclaimed Chinggis Khan in 1206Temüjin became Genghis Khan in 1206, and most one-line quotations under his name are not in the Secret History of the Mongols. Subutai 速不台 c. 1175–1248 Mongol general of the Kalka raid and the invasion of HungarySubutai, not Genghis Khan, directed the Mongol campaign that defeated Hungary in 1241, and the army left the next year undefeated. Babur ظهیرالدین محمد بابر 1483–1530 Timurid prince who founded the Mughal line in north IndiaBabur was a Central Asian Timurid, not an East Asian general: he lost Samarkand, kept a diary, and won north India at Panipat in 1526.

India

Chanakya चाणक्य c. 4th c. BC Traditional adviser of Chandragupta Maurya; name on the ArthashastraChanakya, Kautilya, and Vishnugupta may be one adviser or a whole tradition, and the Arthashastra is a king's manual rather than a feed of maxims.

Korea

Yi Sun-sin 이순신 1545–1598 Joseon admiral in the Imjin WarYi Sun-sin held the sea against Japan's invasion of Korea, was sacked by his own court, and died winning the last battle of the war.

Japan

Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 1534–1582 Sengoku daimyo who broke the Ashikaga order and died short of unificationNobunaga broke a larger army at Okehazama, massed arquebuses at Nagashino, and died at Honnō-ji before Japan was unified. Takeda Shingen 武田信玄 1521–1573 Daimyo of Kai, whose banner quoted Sun TzuThe four characters on Takeda Shingen's banner, swift as the wind and still as a mountain, are a line from Sun Tzu, chapter 7. Miyamoto Musashi 宮本武蔵 c. 1584–1645 Swordsman and author of The Book of Five RingsMusashi's Book of Five Rings is a short sword manual about timing, while the wooden oar and most viral quotations come from later storytelling.

Strategist Quiz

Which of them thinks like you?

Seven questions. Eight possible minds. A card, not a diagnosis.

Take the quiz