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

xml:lang="zh-Latn-wadegile">Mei Yao-chʽên explains as 精卒 “men of spirit.” The Tʽu Shu reads 本, an emendation suggested by 李靖 Li Ching. The meaning then would be, “He lies in wait with the main body of his troops.” ↩

Tu Mu says: “He first of all considers the power of his army in the bulk; afterwards he takes individual talent into account, and uses each man according to his capabilities. He does not demand perfection from the untalented.” ↩

Another reading has 之 instead of 埶. It would be interesting if Capt. Calthrop could tell us where the following occurs in the Chinese: “yet, when an opening or advantage shows, he pushes it to its limits.” ↩

Tsʽao Kung calls this 任自然勢 “the use of natural or inherent power.” Capt. Calthrop ignores the last part of the sentence entirely. In its stead he has: “So await the opportunity, and so act when the opportunity arrives”⁠—another absolutely gratuitous interpolation. The Tʽung Tien omits 任. ↩

The Tʽung Tien omits 善. The chief lesson of this chapter, in Tu Mu’s opinion, is the paramount importance in war of rapid evolutions and sudden rushes. “Great results,” he adds, “can thus be achieved with small forces.” ↩

Chang Yü attempts to explain the sequence of chapters as follows: “Chapter IV, on Tactical Dispositions, treated of the offensive and the defensive; chapter V, on Energy, dealt with direct and indirect methods. He studies the art of varying and combining these two methods before proceeding to the subject of weak and strong points. For the use of direct or indirect methods arises out of attack and defence, and the perception of weak and strong points depends again on the above methods. Hence the present chapter comes immediately after the chapter on Energy.” ↩

Instead of 處, the Yü Lan has in both clauses the stronger word 據. For the antithesis between 佚 and 勞, cf. I (“If he is taking his ease⁠ ⁠…”), where however 勞 is used as a verb. ↩

The next paragraph makes it clear that 致 does not merely mean, as Tu Mu says, 令敵來就我 “to make the enemy approach me,” but rather to make him go in any direction I please. It is thus practically synonymous with 制. Cf. one of Tu Mu’s own notes on V, quoted in note 292. One mark of a great soldier is that he fights on his own terms or fights not at all.776 ↩

In the first case, he will entice him with a bait; in the second, he will strike at some important point which the enemy will have to defend. ↩

This passage may be cited as evidence against Mei Yao-Chʽên’s interpretation of “If he is taking his ease⁠ ⁠…” in chapter I. ↩

飢 is probably an older form than 饑, the reading of the original text. Both are given in the 說文. ↩

The subject to 能 is still 善戰者; but these clauses would read better as direct admonitions, and in the next sentence we find Sun Tzǔ dropping insensibly into the imperative. ↩

The original text, adopted by the Tʽu Shu, has 出其所不趨; it has been altered to suit the context and the commentaries of Tsʽao Kung and Ho Shih, who evidently read 必趨. The other reading would mean: “Appear at points to which the enemy cannot hasten;” but in this case there is something awkward in the use of 趨. Capt. Calthrop is wrong of course with “appearing where the enemy is not.” ↩

We must beware of understanding 無人之地 as “uninhabited country.” Sun Tzǔ habitually uses 人 in the sense of 敵, e.g. supra (“Therefore the clever combatant⁠ ⁠…”). Tsʽao Kung sums up very well: 出空擊虛避其所守擊其不意 “Emerge from the void [q.d. like ‘a bolt from the blue’], strike at vulnerable points, shun places that are defended, attack in unexpected quarters.” The difference of meaning between 空 and 虛 is worth noting. ↩

所不守 is of course hyperbolical; Wang Hsi rightly explains it as “weak points; that is to say, where the general is lacking in capacity, or the soldiers in spirit; where the walls are not strong enough, or the precautions not strict enough; where relief comes too late, or provisions are too scanty, or the defenders are variance amongst themselves.” ↩

I.e., where there are none of the weak points mentioned above. There is rather a nice point involved in the interpretation of this latter clause. Tu Mu, Chʽên Hao, and Mei Yao-chʽên assume the meaning to be: “In order to make your defence quite safe, you must defend even those places that are not likely to be attacked;” and Tu Mu adds: “How much more, then, those that will be attacked.” Taken thus, however, the clause balances less well with the preceding⁠—always a consideration in the highly antithetical style which is natural to the Chinese. Chang Yü, therefore, seems to come nearer the mark in saying: “He who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven