The General's Garden

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The General’s Garden is an ancient Chinese military text, also known as The General’s Garden, Book of the Heart, or Xin Shu. It is traditionally attributed to the famous Three Kingdoms strategist Zhuge Liang, who lived from 181 to 234. However, many scholars think the work was not actually written by him.

History in simple terms:
- Most researchers believe the book was probably created during the Northern Song period (around 960–1127), not in Zhuge Liang’s time. There aren’t any Song copies that survive today.
- The oldest known complete editions come from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Some edition years that still survive include 1517, 1564, and 1637; the 1637 edition has a note dating back to 1485.
- The text was printed many times during the later Qing dynasty (1644–1911).
- A scholar named Zhang Shu edited a notable edition in the 19th century, and a punctuated version of his edition appeared in 1960.

How the Ming and Qing editions differ:
- The Ming editions usually have 50 sections.
- Most Qing editions omit the last four sections, which discuss the “barbarians” from the north, south, east, and west. It’s believed this omission was done to avoid offending the rulers of the Qing dynasty.

Tangut translation:
- A Tangut (an ancient language of a neighboring empire) translation of The General’s Garden was found in a manuscript collected by explorer Aurel Stein from the ancient city of Khara-Khoto in 1914. That manuscript is now in the British Library.
- The Tangut version was likely made in the late 12th or early 13th century, about 200 years earlier than the oldest Chinese copies.
- It contains 37 sections, fewer than the Chinese editions, and the ending sections about the four directions’ barbarians were simplified into a single section about northern barbarians, reflecting Western Xia’s political situation.

In short, The General’s Garden is a renowned but historically contested Chinese military text with a long and complex publication history, and it also exists in an important Tangut translation.