Here's a classic example of something that's so old I can't adequately judge it. My copy was only 45 pages long and they're filled with repetitive and, at least by modern day standards, painfully obvious bits of advice. "All warfare is based on deception," is the recurring theme here and only real takeaway. Is your enemy expecting you to attack him? Then don't. Let him tense up instead. Is your army smaller than your enemy's army? Then do everything you can to make it seem like your army is bigger. And vice versa.
And it only gets more obvious than that. Is your army crossing a swamp? Don't stop there, keep crossing the swamp. Are your men hungry and tired? Then they aren't going to fight very well.
There may be some poetic quality to the whole thing lost in the translation to English and also across 2500 years, but this felt like nothing special to me whatsoever. At least it was a quick one! We're onto whatever's next.
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