The Art of War, Sun Tzu [best english books to read for beginners TXT] 📗

= 1 步; 100 步 = 畝; 100 畝 = 1 夫; 3 夫 = 1 屋; 3 屋 = 1 井; 4 井 = 1 邑; 4 邑 = 1 丘; 4 丘 = 1 甸. According to the Chou Li, there were nine husbandmen to a 井, which would assign to each man the goodly allowance of 100 畝 (of which 6.6 now go to an acre). What the values of these measures were in Sun Tzǔ’s time is not known with any certainty. The lineal 尺, however, is supposed to have been about 20 cm. 急 may include levies of men, as well as other exactions. ↩

The Yü Lan omits 財殫. I would propose the emended reading 力屈則中, etc. In view of the fact that we have 財竭 in the two preceding paragraphs, it seems probable that 財 is a scribe’s mistake for 則, 殫 having been added afterwards to make sense. 中原內虛於家, literally: “Within the middle plains there is emptiness in the homes.” For 中原 cf. Shih Ching II 3 VI 3 and II 5 II 3 With regard to 十去其七, Tu Mu says: 家業十耗其七也, and Wang Hsi: 民費大半矣; that is, the people are mulcted not of ³⁄₁₀, but of ⁷⁄₁₀, of their income. But this is hardly to be extracted from our text. Ho Shih has a characteristic tag: 國以民為本民以食為天居人上者宜平重惜 “The people being regarded as the essential part of the State, and food as the people’s heaven, is it not right that those in authority should value and be careful of both?” ↩

The Yü Lan has several various readings here, the more important of which are 疲 for the less common 罷 (read pʽi), 干 for 蔽, and 兵牛 for 丘牛, which latter, if right, must mean “oxen from the country districts” (cf. supra, “When their substance is drained⁠ ⁠…”). For the meaning of 櫓, see note 225. Capt. Calthrop omits to translate 丘牛大車. ↩

Because twenty cartloads will be consumed in the process of transporting one cartload to the front. According to Tsʽao Kung, a 鍾 = 6 斛 4 㪷, or 64 㪷, but according to Mêng Shih, 10 斛 make a 鍾. The 石 picul consisted of 70 斤 catties (Tu Mu and others say 120).