Zhan Guo Ce

Unlike many of the pre-Qin classics, the authenticity of Zhan Guo Ce, along with the Shijing, Mozi, Yulingzi and Gongsun Longzi had never been questioned since the Western Han period.

In 1931, Luo Genze put forward an argument that the book was composed by Kuai Tong (Chinese: 蒯通) in his two papers based on six conclusions which he drew, a contemporary of Han Xin.

Some writings on cloth were excavated from the Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui near the city of Changsha in 1973 and edited and published in Beijing in 1976 as Zhanguo Zonghengjia Shu (Chinese: 戰國縱橫家書, "Works from the School of Diplomacy During the Warring States Period)".

With the focus thus being more on providing general political insights than on presenting the whole history of the period, there is no stringent year-by-year dating such as that found in the preceding Spring and Autumn Annals.

The twelve dynasties the strategies pertain to are: The intellectual aspects have been disputed due to its stress on fame and profit and its conflicts with Confucian ideology.

This lasted until 1936 where scholars like Zhong Fengnian demonstrated that the book was written as a handbook of diction from the School of Diplomacy, and not intended to be a compilation of historical facts.