Top 10 famous generals of ancient China

Sun Bin 孙膑

 

Sun Bin

Sun Bin (? - 316 BC), a descendant of Sun Tzu, also known as Sun Boling, was a military strategist who lived in the State of Qi during the Warring States Period in Chinese history. Sun was tutored in military strategy with another student, Pang Juan, with the hermit Guiguzi in his early years. They became good friends, but Pang was secretly jealous of Sun, because he perceived that Sun Bin was more talented and had learned more about military strategy from their teacher than he did.

After Pang became a military general of the State of Wei, he pretended to invite Sun to work with him, but then had Sun's kneecaps removed. Sun later escaped from Wei and rose to prominence in the State of Qi, by serving as a military strategist and commander. He led Qi troops to defeat Wei at the battles of Guiling and Maling.

Sun authored the military treatise "Sun Bin's Art of War," which was lost for almost 2,000 years, but its bamboo strips with more than 11,000 words were discovered in an archaeological excavation in Linyi, Shandong Province, in 1972.