Sun Tzu temporarily, to more powerful foes. Aside from his legacy as the author of "The Art of War", Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure. His birth name was Sun Wu, and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing. The name "Sun Tzu" by which he is best known in the Western World is an honorific which means "Master Sun". Sun Tzu's historicity is uncertain. The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian and other traditional Chinese historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu
Sun Tzu most of the notable figures from the Spring and Autumn period. The name "Sun Wu" () does not appear in any text prior to the "Shiji", and may have been a made-up descriptive cognomen meaning "the fugitive warrior": the surname "Sun" can be glossed as the related term "fugitive" ("xùn" ), while "Wu" is the ancient Chinese virtue of "martial, valiant" ("wǔ" ), which corresponds to Sun Tzu's role as the hero's "doppelgänger" in the story of Wu Zixu. The only historical battle attributed to Sun Tzu, the Battle of Boju, has no record of him fighting in that battle.