 Sun Tzu 's historicity is uncertain . Sima Qian and other traditional historians placed him as a minister to King <unk> of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544 – 496 BC . Modern scholars accepting his historicity nonetheless place the existing text of The Art of War in the later Warring States period based upon its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare . Traditional accounts state that the general 's descendant Sun Bin also wrote a treatise on military tactics , also titled The Art of War . Since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as Sun Tzu in classical Chinese texts , some historians believed them identical prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bin 's treatise in 1972 . 
