"The Art of War" by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the 5th century BC. Composed of 13 chapters, this influential work explores military strategy, tactics, intelligence operations, and the art of warfare. For nearly 1,500 years, it served as the lead text in China's Seven Military Classics. The treatise has shaped military thinking worldwide, inspiring leaders from Mao Zedong to Douglas MacArthur with its timeless principles of strategy and discipline.
See Project Gutenberg's eBook #17405 for this same text without the translator's annotations, and an HTML version. Wikipedia page on this work: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War