Did Clausewitz read Sun Tzu's Art of War?
score:13
I have not been able to find firm evidence either way. The first issue to consider is what translations were available.
A French Jesuit missionary in Beijing, Father Amiot (Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, 1718-1793) was the first to translate Sun Tzu's work into a European language: Père Amiot, Art Militaire des Chinois, Paris: Didot L'Ainé 1772 (scan online). An English translation did not become available until the 20th century: Captain E. F. Calthrop (tr.), The Book of War, London: Murray 1908 (scan online). The first German translation dates to 1910: Bruno Navarra (tr.), Das Buch vom Kriege, 80 pp., Berlin: Boll & Pickardt 1910. I have come across a reference to a Russian translation dating to 1860 but have not been able to find out any details. Given that Clausewitz died in 1831, the only translation potentially available to him was the French one.
The second issue to consider is what languages Clausewitz knew. During his lifetime French was by far the most common foreign language learned in Germany, in particular in aristocratic circles but also among the educated middle class. Next to his native German Clausewitz appears to have spoken French and English:
Christopher Bassford, "Clausewitz and His Works", Version 8 Mar 2016 (online)
In the Russian service, Clausewitz was somewhat hobbled by his ignorance of the Russian language. However, he spoke French (as well as English), as did many Russian aristocrats and the Russian imperial family, and there were many ethnic Germans in Russia and in the Russian forces.
Clausewitz spent some time in France as a prisoner of war, and from his comments on the French language and French theater in his correspondence it seems likely that he was fluent in the language:
Sibylle Scheipers, "Do not despair at your fate’: Carl von Clausewitz in French Captivity, 1806–1807," War in History, Vol. 28, No. 1, January 2021, pp. 5-24 (online):
He was detained in his role as adjutant to Prince August and as such shared the aristocratic privileges of captivity that the French granted to August. [...]
On 30 December 1806 August was sent into French captivity in Nancy, and Clausewitz accompanied him. [...]
Language would remain Clausewitz’s starting point in his observations about France and its society. He depicted the French language as affected and superficial: ‘If there has ever been a language that constrains the spirit like a close-fitting robe, it is French, and the French spirit in its stilted courtesy would be horrified by such a confession [referring to a confession of her love for Carl made by Marie in her previous letter, presumably] in spite of all the real hubris of the nation.’ From Paris, he wrote to Marie about the peculiarities of the French theatre. [...]
it was only the conclusion of the Tilsit Peace Treaty of 9 July 1807 that brought about August and Clausewitz’s release.
I conclude that Clausewitz could have read the French translation of Sun Tzu's work, but I have yet to find any evidence that he actually did so. A search and perusal of Vom Kriege (Berlin 1857, scan online) reveals no references to Sun Tzu specifically or even Chinese military strategy in general.
More post
- 📝 Are the pyramids too old?
- 📝 Origin of San Francisco's water lots off Candlestick Point
- 📝 How did Poland avoid partition in the 17th century, but not the 18th century?
- 📝 Where does the tradition of Christmas gifts comes from?
- 📝 When did challenging to a duel cease to be a practice in English culture?
- 📝 Why did mass production have to wait until the Industrial Revolution?
- 📝 Who were the exponents of what Marx dismissed as 'German socialism'?
- 📝 Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
- 📝 Did Empress Cixi divert funds for the Beiyang Fleet to build the Summer Palace?
- 📝 Wales and Ireland in medieval times
- 📝 What type of people were most likely to be suspected of witchcraft in Salem?
- 📝 When and why was Seleucia ultimately abandoned?
- 📝 What are some major military successes the Soviet Union achieved against the Western World?
- 📝 Were there ever actual organizations of pirates?
- 📝 Roman consuls under Roman rex
- 📝 Were there a British 'Négritude' movement?
- 📝 Did Germany lose World War II when/because "kill ratios" started moving "against" her?
- 📝 What were the required conditions to be accepted by a university in Medieval times?
- 📝 Why did the Streltsy in Russia have no summer uniform?
- 📝 Did c.1900 France have a law against foreign government resisting its conquest?
- 📝 How common was it for Americans to visit Europe in the late 19th century?
- 📝 How were borders patrolled in history? They seem too large to patrol
- 📝 Are there any details available on 1954 Afghan proposal for a merger with Pakistan?
- 📝 Was Henry III of England the first fully "English" king?
- 📝 What is "the dead credit"?
- 📝 Earliest evidence of surfing
- 📝 Had the French in Paris started to learn German before their liberation in 1944?
- 📝 How do repeating historical conflicts get resolved?
- 📝 Are big states more likely to cause wars?
- 📝 What was the social condition of a pregnant single woman in the late 1970s in England?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Clausewitz read Sun Tzu's Art of War?
- 📝 Did Sun Tzu's "Art of War" influence Napoleon's philosophy of war and strategy?
- 📝 Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why did Hitler declare war on the USA?
- 📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
- 📝 Why did Civil War officers tell their men to "aim low"?
- 📝 Did the Soviets excel in one area of weaponry during World War II?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 Why did Chamberlain act to appease Hitler leading up to the outbreak of World War 2?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 Which war games did Napoleon practice with his generals?
- 📝 Why didn't China assist in the Vietnam War like they did in Korea?
- 📝 Is it true that Germans in World War 2 did not suffer punishment for refusing genocidal orders?
- 📝 When and why did war chariots stop being used?
- 📝 What did Germany do after World War II to recover so successfully that it became more prosperous than its WW2 victors?
- 📝 Why did the USSR stop in the Winter War against Finland in 1940?
- 📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- 📝 Why did Sun Tzu believe you shouldn't wait beside a river when eager to fight?
- 📝 Did war bonds have better investment alternatives during WWII?
- 📝 When and where did just war theory originate?
- 📝 Did the poor performance of the Red Army in the Winter War significantly contribute to German underestimation of the USSR's military capacity?
- 📝 Did Hitler not intend a major war while invading Poland?
- 📝 What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
- 📝 Did the Germans lose the U-Boat war in World war II because of a shortage of quality, rather than quantity?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
