Sun Zi actually used the army of the Wu nation to fight against the neighboring Chu nation in the Spring and Autumn Era. If you read the history books of China, you will see that he lead an army that defeated another one at least 8 times the size of his own in number. And he did that again...several times.
Oh! HIM! Well, he kinda had an advantage to an extent (mostly because of religious reasons: he was seen as a god). But, otherwise, he is pretty smart.
Patton is definitely a smart one, yes, and so is Zhukov. Which is why I find it difficult to select 5 top military tacticians from all time.
Thanks. The thing is, Yue Fei was and still is well-renowned in China, since he epitomizes everything a general should be to the Chinese.
China has a very...er...interesting history, despite it's tendency to switch dynasty after dynasty. Though I don't claim to be an expert on it (far from it, actually, since I'm not a professor in Beijing on that subject), being a first-generation Chinese American, I can ask my parents about anything they know and studied in their earlier years.
It's alright. The thing is, most people (even a lot of people who understand some Chinese history) don't really bother to read the details, since they don't understand the ancient text and so forth (which, based on my own experience, is extremely hard to read). For that, I wouldn't be surprised if anyone didn't know, since a lot of translated history textbooks don't quite go into detail about pre-Qin Dynasty times.
But, other than that...I really agree with your list. Alexander the Great and Hannibal of Carthage are two of my favorites as well.
From any time period? Er...this is quite difficult, really. Considering that I don't know every single country's history in the world out there.
Still...so far, this is what I have. Listed in random order, though:
1) Sun Tzu, from the Spring and Autumn Era in China (771 BC to 476 BC).
2) Hannibal of Carthage, from the Roman Republic times.
3) Augustus Caesar, from the start of the Roman Empire. (After all, he did settle the civil war that was a result of Julius Caesar's death)
4) Yue Fei (the great general of the Song Dynasty in China. He was executed by the emperor for stupid reasons, even though he almost destroyed the Jin nation and the Mongolians). He existed during a time when China was supposed to have been weakened, and yet he was able to do so well on the military field that the emperor had him killed.
5) Alexander the Great.
Actually, Sun Tzu was the main tactician in the army of the Wu nation during the Spring and Autumn Era against the Chu nation. He was the one who defeated an army that was 8 times the size of his own. The Chu nation was supposed to have been a superpower at it's time, and yet he basically slaughtered them. I think the enemy army he fought was...at least 400,000 men? (typical army size of the Chu nation in the Spring and Autumn era)
As for Alexander the Great...he might have not lost a battle, but he didn't decide on what to do about the lands he conquered. He did have charisma, but later his empire split.
