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

xml:lang="cmn-Hant">投石超距). When Wang Chien heard that they were engaged in these athletic pursuits, he knew that their spirits had been strung up to the required pitch and that they were now ready for fighting. By this time the Chʽu army, after repeating their challenge again and again, had marched away eastwards in disgust. The Chʽin general immediately broke up his camp and followed them, and in the battle that ensued they were routed with great slaughter. Shortly afterwards, the whole of Chʽu was conquered by Chʽin, and the king 負芻 Fu-chʽu led into captivity. (See Shih Chi, ch. 73, f. 5 ro. It should be noted that, 楚 being a taboo character under the Chʽin dynasty, the name figures as 荆 throughout.) ↩

In order that the enemy may never know exactly where you are. It has struck me, however, that the true reading might be, not 運兵, but 連兵 “link your army together” (cf. supra, 吾將使之屬 “Therefore, on dispersive ground⁠ ⁠…”), which would be more in keeping with 併氣積力. Capt. Calthrop cuts the Gordian knot by omitting the words altogether. ↩

Chʽang Yü’s paraphrase is: 常為不可測度之計. ↩

Cf. Nicias’ speech to the Athenians: Τό τε ξύμπαν γνῶτε, ὦ ἄνδρες στρατιῶται, ἀναγκαῖόν τε ὂν ὑμῖν ἀνδράσιν ἀγαθοῖς γίγνεσθαι ὡς μὴ ὄντος χωρίου ἐγγὺς ὅποι ἂν μαλακισθέντες σωθείητε, etc. (Thucydides VII 77 VII) ↩

死 by itself constitutes the protasis, and 焉 is the interrogative = 安. Capt. Calthrop makes the protasis end with 得: “If there be no alternative but death.” But I do not see how this is to be got out of the Chinese. Chang Yü gives a clear paraphrase: 士卒死戰安不得志, and quotes his favourite Wei Liao Tzǔ (ch. 3): 一夫仗劔擊於巿萬人無不避之者臣謂非一人之獨勇萬人皆不肖也何則必死與必生固不侔也 “If one man were to run amok with a sword in the marketplace, and everybody else tried to get out of his way, I should not allow that this man alone had courage and that all the rest were contemptible cowards. The truth is, that a desperado and a man who sets some value on his life do not meet on even terms.” ↩

士人 appears to stand for the more usual 士卒. Chang Yü says: 同在難地安得不共竭其力 “If they are in an awkward place together, they will surely exert their united strength to get out of it.” ↩

Capt. Calthrop weakly says: “there is unity,” as though the text were 則專, as above (“The following are the principles⁠ ⁠…”). But 拘 introduces quite a new idea⁠—that of tenacity⁠—which Tsʽao Kung tries to explain by the word 縛 “to bind fast.” ↩

Tu Mu says: 不待修整而自戒懼. Capt. Calthrop wrongly translates 不修 “without warnings.” ↩

Literally, “without asking, you will get.” Chang Yü’s paraphrase is: 不求索而得情意. ↩

Chang Yü says: 不約束而親上. ↩

This last clause is very similar in sense to the one preceding, except that 親 indicates the soldiers’ attachment to their leader, and 信 the leader’s attitude towards them. I rather doubt if 信 can mean “they will have confidence in their leader,” as the commentary seems to indicate. That way, the sense is not nearly so good. On the other hand, it is just possible that here, as in VIII, note 416 and note 663, 信 may = 申: “without orders, they will carry out [their leader’s plans].” The whole of this paragraph, of course, has reference to “desperate ground.” ↩

祥 is amplified by Tsʽao Kung into 妖祥之言, and 疑 into 疑惑之計. Cf. the Ssǔ-ma Fa, ch. 3: 滅厲祥. ↩

The superstitious, “bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” degenerate into cowards and “die many times before their deaths.” Tu Mu quotes Huang-shih Kung: 禁巫祝不得為吏士卜問軍之吉凶恐亂軍士之心 “ ‘Spells and incantations should be strictly forbidden, and no officer allowed to inquire by divination into the fortunes of an army, for fear the soldiers’s minds should be seriously perturbed.’ The meaning is,” he continues, “that if all doubts and scruples are discarded, your men will never falter in their resolution until they die.” The reading of the standard text is 無所之 “there will be no refuge,” which does not fit in well here. I therefore prefer to adopt the variant 災, which evidently stood in Li Chʽüan’s text. ↩

Chang Yü has the best note on this passage: 貨與壽人之所愛也所以燒擲財寶割棄性命者非懀惡之也不得已也 “Wealth and long life are things for which all men have a natural inclination. Hence, if they burn or fling away valuables, and scarifice their own lives, it is not that they dislike them, but simply that they have no choice.” Sun Tzǔ is slyly insinuating that, as soldiers are but human, it is for the general to see that temptations to shirk fighting and grow rich are not thrown in their way. Capt. Calthrop, mistaking 惡 for the adjective, has: “not because money is a bad thing⁠ ⁠… not because long life is evil.” ↩

The word in the Chinese is 涕 “snivel.” This is taken to indicate more genuine grief than tears alone. ↩

Not because they are afraid, but because, as Tsʽao