"China's great thinkers from the time of Confucius are known for their profound contributions to philosophy, ethics, and military strategy. Less appreciated in the West is their sophisticated thinking about statecraft. The incessant conflicts among the fragmented principalities that eventually formed a unified China in 221 BC produced a rich flowering of conceptual thinking on issues of governance and interstate relations. In this fascinating study, inquiring readers will find a wealth of information regarding how ancient China's strategic sages assessed the factors determining the success or failure of rulers and states, with immediate relevance for better understanding the implications of China's current rise to wealth and power."--Dr. Henry A. Kissinger

"China's increasing strength and influence in the modern world are confronting Chinese with a new set of intellectual challenges in assessing how the country's enhanced status will affect Chinese behavior, how other countries will react, and what policies China should adopt to optimize its interests. Not surprisingly, thoughtful Chinese are looking for clues in their distant past, two and a half millennia ago, when the competition over six centuries among the political enclaves that eventually formed a united China prompted an outpouring of philosophical thinking on issues of statecraft. This stimulating book examines this thinking in ways relevant both to international relations theory and China's emerging position in world affairs."--J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China

"Xuetong Yan, one of China's liveliest and most provocative international relations scholars, provides an excellent introduction to ancient Chinese theories of statecraft. Combined with the responses of his critics, his thoughtful essays reveal the exciting intellectual ferment among China's international relations thinkers. Many of the concepts are recognizable to Western scholars, some are not, but Yan's masterful effort to show how all these ideas might be relevant to China's 'rise' should be read by everyone who is interested in understanding how the past may influence the present."--Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University