Zhongguo bingxue daxi 中國兵學大系

Zhongguo bingxue daxi 中國兵學大系 is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) on warfare compiled by Li Yuri 李浴日 (1908-1955) and published in 1957. Li studied ancient books on war and published not just studies on the ancient work Sunzi bingfa, but also series of studies, like in 1943, when he co-edited with Lin Xunnan 林薰南 (1890-1982) the collection Bingxue luncong 兵學論叢.

The idea for the series came Li in 1945, and he decided to call his collection Zhongguo wuku 中國武庫. One aim was to provide readers with the most important military writings of ancient China, and add to these books superior commentaries. Moreover, the collection should be the gist of knowledge on defending the Chinese motherland. He first announced the compilation of the series in May 1946 in his journal Shijie bingxue 世界兵學, and the subsequent issues of this periodical. Li argued that even if the most important ancient texts were readily found in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, others, more recently compiled texts, were not so easy accessible.

Li planned to divide his series into five parts, namely Principles of War (Zhanli 戰理), Military History (Zhanshi 戰史), Weapons and Implements (Bingqi 兵器), Astronomy (Tianwen 天文), and Topography (Dili 地理). The series was planned to include 60 titles, ranging from the Seven Military Classics of old (Wujing qishu 武經七書), classical texts of the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), and less well-known treatises. An additional volume was to include chapters on warfare and military matters found in basically non-specialized books of importance.

Publication was planned for late 1947. Li even projected a similar collection of translation of Western texts on military affairs, Xiyang wuku 西洋武庫. In 1949, Li fled to Taiwan, and decided to rename his project Zhongguo bingxue daxi. In the meantime he spent a lot of effort for a book on Chinese military thought, Zhongguo bingxue sixiang shi 中國兵學思想史, and the journal Zhandou 戰鬥. Li died unexpectedly in 1955 and was unable to finalize his project. His wife Lai Yaozhi 賴瑤芝 gathered the remains of his work, or what had survived civil war and flight, and was able to compile a series of 33 texts, yet without having at hand a preface written by her late husband. She therefore asked the heads of the Society for Global Military Studies (Shijie Bingxue She 世界兵學社) to write a collective preface to the series (Zhangguan xu 長官序), and added an afterword (ba 跋) by herself. This result was published in early 1957 by the Shijie Bingxue She Society in Taibei.

The series consists of 14 volumes.