The Arthashastra
This is an extraordinary detailed manual on statecraft and the science of living by one of classical India's greatest minds. Kautilya, also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta, wrote the Arthashastra not later than 150 AD. His genius is reflected in this volume, which is the most comprehensive treatise of statecraft of classical times.
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- I have a good collection of books on the topic of "Worldly Wisdom". Most books will span the categories and you have to tease their teachings into the above three buckets. When reading these books always remember that they were written in a specific Context/Time and hence would need reinterpretation in your specific context before application. Also as much as possible go to the original sources/authoritative translations instead of "popular" accounts of the same which are almost always dumbed down and virtually useless. The essence is in understanding the nuances and not the obvious "sound bite".
Here is a partial list in no specific order (lookup their reviews on Amazon/elsewhere on the web for details);
1) The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence by Baltasar Gracian translated by Jeremy Robbins. This book is also available as "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" translated by many others. Of these the one by Christopher Maurer is noteworthy.
2) A Pocket Mirror for Heroes by Baltasar Gracian translated by Christopher Maurer.
3) The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Of the many translations, the one by Peter Bondanella in Oxford World's Classics is noteworthy.
4) Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi) by Francesco Guicciardini translated by Mario Domandi.
5) The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra by Roger Boesche - A very nice summary of the magnum opus "Arthashastra" from Ancient India.
6) King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya's Arthasastra translated and annotated by Patrick Olivelle - A very good and modern translation of a large text.
7) The Essence of Politics (Sanskrit: Nitisara) by Kamandaki translated by Jesse Ross Knutson - A shorter Ancient Indian text in the vein of Arthashastra.
8) The Pancatantra: The Book of India's Folk Wisdom translated by Patrick Olivelle.
9) Tirukkuṟaḷ by Tiruvalluvar (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kural for details) - For a good English translation see the one translated by P.S.Sundaram and published in Penguin Classics.
10) The Art of War by Sun Tzu translated by Ralph D. Sawyer.
11) The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China translated by Ralph D. Sawyer.
12) [The Complete] Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi translated by Kenji Tokitsu.
I have left out the obvious works by Epictetus/Seneca/Cicero/Marcus Aurelius/etc. since they are all well known.
The above is a good representative of the three categories drawn from different cultures and should get you started.
- I don't know whether it's well-regarded; I do however highly recommend the translation-cum-rearrangement by Rangarajan: http://www.amazon.com/Arthashastra-Penguin-classics-Kautilya... (I've read it myself, and found it quite good.)
(He's re-arranged it to be coherent for a modern reader; one reason for this is because the original was meant to be memorised and perhaps used from memory, and was ordered accordingly.)
- The idea of free markets existed in India, Arabia and China long before this, the 'Silk route/road' gave birth to first truly global and free market with many 'bazaars'. There is a whole book in Sanskrit named as "Arthashastra", which was written in 3rd century BCE.
This is again some kind of whitewashing the history where Europeans seem to have invented everything and nothing ever happened before them.
- I agree, but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520757 is about at least seven dozen people from three of the five eyes on one side, and someone who was infamous for "hacking" Tony Blair and Uscentcom on the other, yet nothing in any of the articles suggests anything much more technical than social engineering[1].
(Indeed, the story as written does have Hollywood MacGuffin floppy disk written all over it, in that I'd find it implausible that, even in a war zone, no one kept anything on-prem, or at least backups? At least performing a "kill -9" via Hellfire missile does upstage Stanford gangstas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4 .)
[1] Compare https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-wh... and remember that the case of TFA starts in 1974 with social engineering via "Nadia." I'm pretty sure the Arthashastra mentions social engineering via thirst trap, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi has a similar story. Then there's https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you... 's account of deradicalisation via honey trap.
Q. How did Adam and Eve anticipate the twenty-first century?
A. They failed to read Apple's Terms & Conditions and got in trouble for misunderstanding the Privacy Policy.
