A Book of Five Rings

Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings, translated by Victor Harris, is a primary source of the first order, the seventeenth century swordsman's own treatise on strategy and combat, composed shortly before his death and later read well beyond its original martial context as a work touching on discipline, perception and the Buddhist and Confucian intellectual currents Musashi drew on. As Musashi's own words, it is unmatched authority for his personal philosophy and method as he articulated it. It is a practitioner's manual written for students of his own specific sword school rather than a systematic religious or philosophical treatise, and later popular readings applying it broadly to business or general life strategy represent later reception and extension of the text rather than claims Musashi himself made.