The Art of War is written in Classical Chinese. Google Translate uses modern Chinese. Google Translate will spit out garbage if you attempt to translate directly from the original text. You have to translate it twice: once from Classical Chinese into modern Chinese and then from modern Chinese into English.
You can get a translation from Classical Chinese into modern Chinese by going here, selecting the chapter you want to read and then clicking the “原文/译文” button in the upper right corner. The Classical Chinese will remain black. A modern Chinese translation will appear in gold. Copy the gold text into Google Translate or Baidu Translate to get a better English translation.
Google Translate from modern Chinese into English:
Sun Tzu said: In combat with soldiers, you usually have to dispatch thousands of chariots, thousands of transport vehicles, and gather 100,000 soldiers to transport grain and grass thousands of miles along the way. In this way, all kinds of domestic and foreign expenses, the cost of entertaining envoys and strategists, the cost of repairing materials such as glue and paint for combat equipment, and the maintenance of tanks and armor, all cost a huge amount of money every day. After these preparations are made, the 100,000 army can be dispatched!
The Art of War is written in Classical Chinese. Google Translate uses modern Chinese. Google Translate will spit out garbage if you attempt to translate directly from the original text. You have to translate it twice: once from Classical Chinese into modern Chinese and then from modern Chinese into English.
You can get a translation from Classical Chinese into modern Chinese by going here, selecting the chapter you want to read and then clicking the “原文/译文” button in the upper right corner. The Classical Chinese will remain black. A modern Chinese translation will appear in gold. Copy the gold text into Google Translate or Baidu Translate to get a better English translation.
Example classical Chinese:
Example modern Chinese:
Google Translate from modern Chinese into English: