The Art of War by Sun Tzu (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

lang="zh-Latn-wadegile" xml:lang="zh-Latn-wadegile">chêng. 尉繚子 Wei Liao Tzǔ [4th cent. BC] says: 正兵貴先奇兵貴後 ‘Direct warfare favours frontal attacks, indirect warfare attacks from the rear.’ Tsʽao Kung says: ‘Going straight out to join battle is a direct operation; appearing on the enemy’s rear is an indirect manoeuvre.’ 李衛公 Li Wei-kung [6th and 7th cent. AD] says: ‘In war, to march straight ahead is chêng; turning movements, on the other hand, are chʽi.’ These writers simply regard chêng as chêng, and chʽi as chʽi; they do not note that the two are mutually interchangeable and run into each other like the two sides of a circle [see infra, ‘The direct and the indirect lead on⁠ ⁠…’]. A comment of the Tʽang Emperor Tʽai Tsung goes to the root of the matter: ‘A chʽi manoeuvre may be chêng, if we make the enemy look upon it as chêng; then our real attack will be chʽi, and vice versa. The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.’ ” To put it perhaps a little more clearly: any attack or other operation is 正, on which the enemy has had his attention fixed; whereas that is 奇, which takes him by surprise or comes from an unexpected quarter. If the enemy perceives a movement which is meant to be 奇, it immediately becomes 正. ↩

虛實, literally “the hollow and the solid,” is the title of chap. VI 碫 tuan is the Tʽu Shu reading, 碬 hsia that of the standard text. It appears from Kʽang Hsi that there has been much confusion between the two characters, and indeed, it is probable that one of them has really crept into the language as a mistake for the other. ↩

Chang Yü says: 徐發奇或擣其旁或擊其後 “Steadily develop indirect tactics, either by pounding the enemy’s flanks or falling on his rear.” A brilliant example of “indirect tactics” which decided the fortunes of a campaign was Lord Roberts’ night march round the Peiwar Kotal in the second Afghan war.775 ↩

奇 is the universally accepted emendation for 兵, the reading of the 北堂書鈔. ↩

Tu Yu and Chang Yü understand this of the permutations of 奇 and 正. But at present Sun Tzǔ is not speaking of 正 at all, unless, indeed, we suppose with 鄭友賢 Chêng Yu-hsien that a clause relating to it has fallen out of the text. Of course, as has already been pointed out, the two are so inextricably interwoven in all military operations, that they cannot really be considered apart. Here we simply have an expression, in figurative language, of the almost infinite resource of a great leader. ↩

宮商角微羽 ↩

靑黃赤白黑 blue, yellow, red, white, and black. ↩

酸辛醎甘苦 sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter. ↩

The Tʽu Shu adds 哉. The final 之 may refer either to the circle or, more probably, to the 奇正之變 understood. Capt. Calthrop is wrong with: “They are a mystery that none can penetrate.” ↩

For 疾 the Yü Lan reads 擊, which is also supported by a quotation in the 呂氏春秋 (3rd cent. BC). 節 in this context is a word which really defies the best efforts of the translator. Tu Mu says that it is equivalent to 節量遠近 “the measurement of estimation of distance.” But this meaning does not quite fit the illustrative simile below (“Energy may be likened⁠ ⁠…”). As applied to the falcon, it seems to me to denote that instinct of self-restraint which keeps the bird from swooping on its quarry until the right moment, together with the power of judging when the right moment has arrived. The analogous quality in soldiers is the highly important one of being able to reserve their fire until the very instant at which it will be most effective. When the Victory went into action at Trafalgar at hardly more than drifting pace, she was for several minutes exposed to a storm of shot and shell before replying with a single gun. Nelson coolly waited until he was within close range, when the broadside he brought to bear worked fearful havoc on the enemy’s nearest ships. That was a case of 節. ↩

Tu Yu defines 節 here by the word 斷, which is very like “decision” in English. 短 is certainly used in a very unusual sense, even if, as the commentators, it = 近. This would have reference to the measurement of distance mentioned above, letting the enemy get near before striking. But I cannot help thinking that Sun Tzǔ meant to use the word in a figurative sense comparable to our own idiom “short and sharp.” Cf. Wang Hsi’s note, which after describing the falcon’s mode of attack, proceeds: 兵之乘當如是耳 “This is just how the ‘psychological moment’ should be seized in war.” I do not care for Capt. Calthrop’s rendering: “The spirit of the good fighter is terrifying, his occasions sudden.” ↩

“Energy” seems to be the best equivalent here for 埶, because the comparison implies