Ancient China · General and strategist of the Warring States

Sun Bin 孫臏

Attested BC 356 - BC 301

Passages
21
Chapters
4
Histories
2

Overview

The translated histories identify Sun Bin as a general, military officer, strategist, and teacher. This record brings together 21 passages from 4 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Sun Bin 孫臏 Sun Bin
Personal name Bin
Personal Sun Bin 孫臏 Sūn Bìn
Personal name Sun Bin 孫臏 Sūn Bìn
Personal name Sun Bin 孫子 Sunzi
Title Sun Tzu 孫子 Sūn Zǐ

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • General
  • Military Officer
  • Strategist
  • Teacher
  • Writer

Life and dates

Attested activity

  • Source Date: Text: 後十三歲…馬陵 · Western Year: BC 341
    Explicit event contextual date · shiji:065:s0059, shiji:065:s0072
  • Source Date: Text: 戰國 · Western Year: BC 350
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:025:s0058
  • Source Date: Text: 戰國時期 · Western Year: c. BC 350
    Explicit event contextual date · shiji:048:s0170
  • Source Date: Text: 桂陵…馬陵 · Western Interval: Start: BC 353 · End: BC 341
    Explicit event contextual date · shiji:065:s0058, shiji:065:s0059, shiji:065:s0072
  • Source Date: Text: 齊威王、宣王用孫子 · Western Interval: Start: BC 356 · End: BC 301
    Explicit event contextual date · shiji:074:s0012

Family

  • Descendant of Sun Wu (孫武)
    Kinship Term: descendant / 後世子孫
    Kinship Term: descendant / 後世子孫

Origins and identity

Career and standing

  • Label: teacher/advisor / 師 · Action: appointed
  • Status: convict-laborer · Action: held · Details: criminal laborer / 刑徒
    Explicit · shiji:065:s0040
  • Status: mutilation · Action: suffered · Details: feet amputated and face branded / 刑斷其兩足而黥之
    Explicit · shiji:065:s0039

Places and affiliations

Learning and skills

  • Subject: military strategy / 兵法 · Relation: studied
    Explicit · shiji:065:s0037

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: clearly outplotted Pang Juan but could not escape mutilation · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Source Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
    Explicit · shiji:065:s0159

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 1 passage
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 48House of Chen She · 1 passage
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 65Biographies of Sun Tzu and Wu Qi · 18 passages
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 74Biographies of Mengzi and Xun Qing · 1 passage