On Sunzi’s Art of War: A Dialogue between Vytis Silius and Geir Sigurðsson

Sunzi’s Art of War (Sunzi bing fa 孫子兵法) is a philosophical manual of warfare that was composed in China during the Warring States Period, most probably in the 4th century BCE. Although its specific topic of discussion is how to conduct warfare most effeciently and with as little destruction and as few casualties as possible, it has also been interpreted more broadly as a philosophy of management and social technique. Its philosophical teachings are closely aligned with those of Daoism (Taoism) and some parts of the text are reminiscent of sections from the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), sometimes translated as the Classic of the Way and its Virtue.

Translations of this ancient text abound in “large” languages such as English, German, French and Japanese but much less so in languages not spoken by many. In 2019, an Icelandic translation by Geir Sigurðsson was published by the Vigdís Institute of Foreign Languages / University of Iceland Press and this year, in 2026, a Lithuanian translation was produced by Vytis Silius and published by Phi knygos in Vilnius.

On the occasion of Vytis‘s visit to the University of Iceland in the first week of September, the Vigdís Institute of Foreign Languages and the Northern Lights Confucius Institute jointly organize an event during which Vytis and Geir will conduct together an informal dialogue about their experiences of the translation process, the most important or interesting messages of this classic text and the viability of its wider application to other spheres of human life. The dialogue will take no more than one hour after which the audience will have an opportunity to pose questions.

The event will take place in Veröld – House of Vigdís, room 008, 2 September, 5:30 pm, and will be conducted in English.