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

rapid are they.” Likewise, an attack should be made so quickly that it cannot be parried. ↩

The reading of Tu Yu, Chia Lin, and apparently Tsʽao Kung, is 指向分衆, which is explained as referring to the subdivision of the army, mentioned in chapter V (“The control of a large force⁠ ⁠…” and “Fighting with a large army⁠ ⁠…”), by means of banners and flags, serving to point out (指) to each man the way he should go (向). But this is very forced, and the ellipsis is too great, even for Sun Tzǔ. Luckily, the Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan have the variant 嚮, which not only suggests the true reading 鄉, but affords some clue to the way in which the corruption arose. Some early commentator having inserted 向 as the sound of 鄉, the two may afterwards have been read as one character; and this being interchangeable with 向, 鄉 must finally have disappeared altogether. Meanwhile, 掠 would have been altered to 指 in order to make sense. As regards 分衆, I believe that Ho Shih alone has grasped the real meaning, the other commentators understanding it as “dividing to men into parties” to search for plunder. Sun Tzǔ wishes to lessen the abuses of indiscriminate plundering by insisting that all booty shall be thrown into a common stock, which may afterwards be fairly divided amongst all. ↩

That this is the meaning, may be gathered from Tu Mu’s note: 開土拓境則分割與有功者. The 三略 gives the same advice: 獲地裂之. 廓 means “to enlarge” or “extend”⁠—at the expense of the enemy, understood. Cf. Shih Ching, III 1 VII 1: 懀其式廓 “hating all the great States.” Chʽên Hao also says 屯兵種蒔 “quarter your soldiers on the land, and let them sow and plant it.” It is by acting on this principle, and harvesting the lands they invaded, that the Chinese have succeeded in carrying out some of their most memorable and triumphant expeditions, such as that of 班超 Pan Chʽao who penetrated to the Caspian, and in more recent years, those of 福康安 Fu-kʽang-an and 左宗棠 Tso Tsung-tʽang.779 ↩

Note that both these words, like the Chinese 懸權, are really metaphors derived from the use of scales. ↩

Chang Yü quotes 慰繚子 as saying that we must not break camp until we have gauged the resisting power of the enemy and the cleverness of the opposing general. Cf. the “seven comparisons” in chapter I. Capt. Calthrop omits this sentence. ↩

See supra, “After that, comes tactical manoeuvring⁠ ⁠…” and “Thus, to take a long and circuitous route⁠ ⁠…” ↩

With these words, the chapter would naturally come to an end. But there now follows a long appendix in the shape of an extract from an earlier book on War, now lost, but apparently extant at the time when Sun Tzǔ wrote. The style of this fragment is not noticeably different from that of Sun Tzǔ himself, but no commentator raises a doubt as to its genuineness. ↩

It is perhaps significant that none of the earlier commentators give us any information about this work. Mei Yao-Chʽên calls it 軍之舊典 “an ancient military classic,” and Wang Hsi, 古軍書 “an old book on war.” Considering the enormous amount of fighting that had gone on for centuries before Sun Tzǔ’s time between the various kingdoms and principalities of China, it is not in itself improbable that a collection of military maxims should have been made and written down at some earlier period. ↩

Implied, though not actually in the Chinese. ↩

I have retained the words 金鼓 of the original text, which recur in the next paragraph, in preference to the other reading 鼓鐸 “drums and bells,” which is found in the Tʽung Tien, Pei Tʽang Shu Chʽao and Yü Lan. 鐸 is a bell with a clapper. See Lun Yü III 24, Chou Li XXIX 15, 29 金 of course would include both gongs and bells of every kind. The Tʽu Shu inserts a 之 after each 為. ↩

The original text, followed by the Tʽu Shu, has 人 for 民 here and in the next two paragraphs. But, as we have seen, 人 is generally used in Sun Tzǔ for the enemy. ↩

Note the use of 一 as a verb. Chang Yü says: 視聽均齊則雖百萬之衆進退如一矣 “If sight and hearing converge simultaneously on the same object, the evolutions of as many as a million soldiers will be like those of a single man”! ↩

Chang Yü quotes a saying: 令不進而進與令不退而退厥罪惟均 “Equally guilty are those who advance against orders and those who retreat against orders.” Tu Mu tells a story in this connection of 吳起 Wu Chʽi, when he was fighting against the Chʽin State. Before the battle had begun, one of his soldiers, a man of matchless daring, sallied forth by himself, captured two heads from the