 Of the military texts written before the unification of China and Shi Huangdi 's subsequent book burning in the second century BC , six major works have survived . During the much later Song dynasty , these six works were combined with a Tang text into a collection called the Seven Military Classics . As a central part of that compilation , The Art of War formed the foundations of orthodox military theory in early modern China . Illustrating this point , the book was required reading to pass the tests for imperial appointment to military positions . 
