The Book of Five Rings

De: Miyamoto Musashi, William Scott Wilson - translator

Narrado por: Scott Brick

Setting down his thoughts on swordplay, on winning, and on spirituality, legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi intended this modest work as a guide for his immediate disciples and future generations of samurai. He had little idea he was penning a masterpiece that would be eagerly devoured by people in all walks of life centuries after his death.

Along with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Five Rings has long been regarded as an invaluable treatise on the strategy of winning. Musashi's timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant was addressed to readers of earlier times on the battlefield and now serves the modern listener in the battle of life.

In this new rendering by the translator of Hagakure and The Unfettered Mind, William Scott Wilson adheres rigorously to the 17th-century Japanese text and clarifies points of ambiguity in earlier translations. In addition, he offers an extensive introduction and a translation of Musashi's rarely published The Way of Walking Alone.

©2002 William Scott Wilson (P)2010 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"On Wall Street, when Musashi talks, people listen." ( Time)

Great guide for a great mindset

Great work, it is quite short though. A lot of the information you will have to investigate thoroughly elsewhere. However, he does put you on the right course for a winning mind set. Really insight into the mind of a man who won over 60 life and death fights.

The book of the five rings

You should investigate this thoroughly study this in great detail. Put it to practice daily

Very enlightening.

Full of a lot of useful information. Classic read and very insightful. Highly Recommended Book

Unbelievably Good

So much wisdom in such a short book. Could not recommend enough. Words that are timeless.

I love the wisdom

this is knowledge you can carry with you and apply in your everyday life. I know that I do.

Very interesting.

I find that you can make a lot of comparisons to everyday life. But will listen again to let you know what they are.

A must read for every martial artist!

If you study any discipline of martial art, you're going to want this knowledge dropped on you.

Narration is average but content is timeless and practical

The way musashi universalizes his combat experience and created a list of transcendental principals that translate to all challenging endeavors is a marvel 500 years later . Truly in touch and brilliant

DO NOT Listen to David P. Grange's Review

It is clear that he skipped the forward, or he would realize how ignorant his statement about the translator is. William Scott Wilson isn't some "western elitist" (whatever that means). He is a master linguist and historian who was granted access to one of the original copies of this work by the Soke of Musashi's own surviving Niten Ichi-ryu school. He had extensive help and guidance from non-western, non-elitists to complete this work, which took up a major chunk of his life to complete. Even the most famous translations of A Book of Five Rings did not come from the source material that he had access to. This is a pure gem of a book for us lucky readers and history/martial arts enthusiasts. Wilson's focus on translating the semantics of the original papers is a work of dedication and passion that literally distills down to he and his co-writers writing notes on "untranslatable puns" that Musashi made (as just one example), in order to help the reader better understand Musashi's mindset and nuance - not just the raw words or a direct and watered down English translation. He explains the approach to translating this work in such detail STRICTLY FOR all the people like David out there - though, as we all can plainly see, it's a fruitless effort. I've read several different versions of this masterpiece, and this has by far been my personal favorite, mainly due to all the detailed work that was put into allowing us laymen and non-Japanese speakers to understand tiny morsels of information we may have missed otherwise. Form whatever opinion you like; this review is just my own opinion, afterall. But don't pass on this wonderful book strictly based on guys like David's ignorance, impatience, and his own brand of elitism.

Less than I'd hoped for.

Any additional comments?

Scott Brick has a pleasant voice, but the extensive commentary at the beginning is draggy. I'd probably have liked it better in text format, i.e. for study.