Modern meaning of the thoughts of the treatise “The Art of War” by Chinese military leader and theorist Sun Tzu is considered in relation to the concepts of war and military force in the life of state and society, of the aims and objectives of war, of the required quality of commander, problems of managing the military sphere etc. Active use of Sun Tzu ideas in modern Chinese and American political-military and military-strategic thinking, in the statutes of the United States armed forces is noted. This treatise, so the author, is one of the most important samples of traditional Chinese social-scientific thinking, and it retains much of its relevance in the XXI century.