The Cosmological Archetype of War in Sun-zi Treatise “Bing fa”

The proposed research analyzes for the first time the text of the ancient Chinese treatise “The Art of War” (兵法 bing fa ) from the point of view of the presence in it of archetypal constructions designed to tame chaos in such a phenomenon of human society as war. This written work of the Chinese strategist and thinker Sun-zi has been thoroughly analyzed into phrases and words by specialists of various disciplines, but all in one key - in the key of war. In this paper, other research goals of this treatise are formulated, consisting in tracking the process of embedding elements of military affairs into the cosmological archetype of Tao. It is particularly noted that, in essence, by creating the “Bing Fa”, Sun-zi accomplished what no theorist of the art of war could do. He presented the cosmological archetype of war in the form of a sequential set of five archetypal elements, relying in its construction on the Taoist model of the cosmological archetype of Tao. In the world triad of Heaven - Man - Earth, the central place of Sun-zi is occupied by a military subject: a Warlord - Commander-in-Chief, a Warrior. From now on, a commander who knows the military craft must be responsible for the fate of his people, ensure the security of the state, its power and invulnerability. It can be traced that, in essence, civilization acts as a breeding ground for warriors and war, and Taoism together with Confucianism can be incorporated into the civilizational space only with their support of the prevailing state ideology.