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

[see chapter IV, ‘The general who is skilled in defence⁠ ⁠…’], making it impossible for the enemy to guard against him. This being so, the places that I shall attack are precisely those that the enemy cannot defend⁠ ⁠… He who is skilled in defence hides in the most secret recesses of the earth, making it impossible for the enemy to estimate his whereabouts. This being so, the places that I shall hold are precisely those that the enemy cannot attack.” ↩

An aphorism which puts the whole art of war into a nutshell. ↩

Literally, “without form or sound,” but it is said of course with reference to the enemy. Chang Yü, whom I follow, draws no sharp distinction between 微 and 神, but Tu Mu and others think that 微 indicates the secrecy to be observed on the defensive, and 神 the rapidity to be displayed in attack. The Yü Lan text differs considerably from ours, reading: 微乎微乎故能隱於常形神乎神乎故能為敵司命. ↩

The Tʽung Tien has 故能為變化司命. Capt. Calthrop’s version of this paragraph is so remarkable that I cannot refrain from quoting it in full: “Now the secrets of the art of offence are not to be easily apprehended, as a certain shape or noise can be understood, of the senses; but when these secrets are once learnt, the enemy is mastered.” ↩

The second member of the sentence is weak, because 不可及 is nearly tautologous with 不可追. The Yü Lan reads 遠 for 速. ↩

Tu Mu says: “If the enemy is the invading party, we can cut his line of communications and occupy the roads by which he will have to return; if we are the invaders, we may direct our attack against the sovereign himself.” It is clear that Sun Tzǔ, unlike certain generals in the late Boer war, was no believer in frontal attacks. ↩

In order to preserve the parallelism with the previous paragraph, I should prefer to follow the Tʽu Shu text, which inserts 雖 before 畫地. This extremely concise expression is intelligibly paraphrased by Chia Lin: 雖未修壘壍 “even though we have constructed neither wall nor ditch.” The real crux of the passage lies in 乖其所之也. 之 of course = 至. Tsʽao Kung defines 乖 by the word 戾, which is perhaps a case of obscurum per obscurius. Li Chʽüan, however, says: 設奇異而疑之 “we puzzle him by strange and unusual dispositions;” and Tu Mu finally clinches the meaning by three illustrative anecdotes⁠—one of 諸葛亮 Chu-ko Liang, who when occupying 陽平 Yang-pʽing and about to be attacked by 司馬懿 Ssǔ-ma I, suddenly struck his colours, stopped the beating of the drums, and flung open the city gates, showing only a few men engaged in sweeping and sprinkling the ground. This unexpected proceeding had the intended effect; for Ssǔ-ma I, suspecting an ambush, actually drew off his army and retreated. What Sun Tzǔ is advocating here, therefore, is nothing more or less than the timely use of “bluff.” Capt. Calthrop translates: “and prevent the enemy from attacking by keeping him in suspense,” which shows that he has not fully grasped the meaning of 乖. ↩

The conclusion is perhaps not very obvious, but Chang Yü (after Mei Yao-chʽên) rightly explains it thus: “If the enemy’s dispositions are visible, we can make for him in one body; whereas, our own dispositions being kept secret, the enemy will be obliged to divide his forces in order to guard against attack from every quarter.” 形 is here used as an active verb: “to make to appear.” See IV, note 249. Capt. Calthrop’s “making feints” is quite wrong. ↩

The original text has 以敵攻其一也, which in accordance with the Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan has been altered as above. I adopt the more plausible reading of the Tʽu Shu: 是以十攻其一也, in spite of having to refer 十 to ourselves and not to the enemy. Thus Tu Yu and Mei Yao-chʽên both regard 十 as the undivided force, consisting of so many parts, and 一 as each of the isolated fractions of the enemy. The alteration of 攻 into 共 can hardly be right, though the true text might conceivably have been 是以十共攻其一也. ↩

For 擊, the Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan have 敵. Tu Yu, followed by the other commentators, arbitrarily defines 約 as 少而易勝 “few and easy to conquer,” but only succeeds thereby in making the sentence absolutely pointless. As for Capt. Calthrop’s translation: “In superiority of numbers there is economy of strength,” its meaning is probably known to himself alone. In justification of my own rendering of 約, I would refer to Lun Yü IV 2 and VII 25 (3). ↩

Sheridan once explained the reason of General Grant’s victories by saying that “while his opponents were kept fully employed wondering what he was going to do, he was thinking most of what he was going to do himself.” ↩

In Frederick the Great’s Instructions to His Generals we read: “A defensive war is apt