CHINESE TV series “The Knockout,” which focuses on crackdowns on gang crimes and corruption, has become popular with Chinese audience members, sparking a lot of discussions on social media and boosting sales of the Chinese military treatise “The Art of War.”

The book, introducing skills related to warfare and military strategy, has hopped on the top of the classic-book bestseller lists on several e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Dangdang and some versions have been sold out. Industry insiders said the sudden popularity of the book was due to the hit TV series.

The manager of the Librairie Avant-garde bookstore in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province said she put the same version of “The Art of War” as that in the series in the bookstore and readers have been more interested.

The TV series centers on policeman An Xin and gangleader Gao Qiqiang who cooperates with some officials in the local government to commit crimes. When the two characters first meet in 2000, they are friends and An recommends a series of books to Gao, a poor fishmonger at the time, encouraging him to read books and learn how to run a business. ‘The Art of War” is included in the book list.

Gao reads the book carefully and some of his lines in the series are picked from the book, like “If you surround the enemy and have the certainty of victory, you must leave a gap and let him escape, otherwise he will make it a life-and-death struggle.” These lines attracted Chinese netizens, who found that the classic military text is full of wisdom.

“The Art of War” is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Wu (545-470 B.C.) and remains the most influential text in East Asian warfare. It has also influenced Western military thinking, as well as business tactics, legal strategy, politics, sport and beyond. U.S. military generals Douglas MacArthur and Norman Schwarzkopf were all known to have drawn inspiration from the book.

The popularity for the book proves the charm of Chinese ancient classics. (Global Times)