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

carriage and transportation cause exhaustion on the highways?⁠—The answer is, that not victuals alone, but all sorts of munitions of war have to be conveyed to the army. Besides, the injunction to ‘forage on the enemy’ only means that when an army is deeply engaged in hostile territory, scarcity of food must be provided against. Hence, without being solely dependent on the enemy for corn, we must forage in order that there may be an uninterrupted flow of supplies. Then, again, there are places like salt deserts (磧鹵之地), where provisions being unobtainable, supplies from home cannot be dispensed with.” ↩

Mei Yao-chʽên says: 廢於耒耜 “Men will be lacking at the plough-tail.” The allusion is to 井田 the system of dividing land into nine parts, as shown in the character 井, each consisting of a 夫 or 頃 (about 15 acres), the plot in the centre being cultivated on behalf of the State by the tenants of the other eight. It was here also, so Tu Mu tells us, that their cottages were built and a well sunk, to be used by all in common. (See II, note 210.) These groups of eight peasant proprietors were called 鄰. In time of war, one of the families had to serve in the army, while the other seven contributed to its support (一家從軍七家奉之). Thus, by a levy of 100,000 men (reckoning one able-bodied soldier to each family) the husbandry of 700,000 families would be affected. ↩

“For spies” is of course the meaning, though it would spoil the effect of this curiously elaborate exordium if spies were actually mentioned at this point. ↩

Sun Tzǔ’s argument is certainly ingenious. He begins by adverting to the frightful misery and vast expenditure of blood and treasure which war always brings in its train. Now, unless you are kept informed of the enemy’s condition, and are ready to strike at the right moment, a war may drag on for years. The only way to get this information is to employ spies, and it is impossible to obtain trustworthy spies unless they are properly paid for their services. But it is surely false economy to grudge a comparatively trifling amount for this purpose, when every day that the war lasts eats up an incalculably greater sum. This grievous burden falls on the shoulders of the poor, and hence Sun Tzǔ concludes that to neglect the use of spies is nothing less than a crime against humanity. ↩

An inferior reading for 主 is 仁, thus explained by Mei Yao-chʽên: 非以仁佐國者也. ↩

This idea, that the true object of war is peace, has its root in the national temperament of the Chinese. Even so far back as 597 BC, these memorable words were uttered by Prince 莊 Chuang of the Chʽu State: 夫文止戈為武⁠ ⁠… 夫武禁暴戢兵保大定功安民和衆豐財者也 “The character for ‘prowess’ (武) is made up of 止 ‘to stay’ and 戈 ‘a spear’ (cessation of hostilities). Military prowess is seen in the repression of cruelty, the calling in of weapons, the preservation of the appointment of Heaven, the firm establishment of merit, the bestowal of happiness on the people, putting harmony between the princes, the diffusion of wealth.” (Tso Chuan, 宣公 XII 3 ad fin.) ↩

That is, knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions, and what he means to do. ↩

以禱祀 “by prayers or sacrifices,” says Chang Yü. 鬼 are the disembodied spirits of men, and 神 supernatural beings or “gods.” ↩

Tu Mu’s note makes the meaning clear: 象, he says, is the same as 類 reasoning by analogy; 不可以他事比類而求 “[knowledge of the enemy] cannot be gained by reasoning from other analogous cases.” ↩

Li Chʽüan says: 夫長短闊狹遠近小大卽可驗之於度數人之情偽度不能知也 “Quantities like length, breadth, distance and magnitude, are susceptible of exact mathematical determination; human actions cannot be so calculated.” ↩

Mei Yao-chʽên has rather an interesting note: 鬼神之情可以筮卜知形氣之物可以象類求天地之理可以度數驗唯敵之情必由間者而後知也 “Knowledge of the spirit-world is to be obtained by divination; information in natural science may be sought by inductive reasoning; the laws of the universe can be verified by mathematical calculation: but the dispositions of an enemy are ascertainable through spies and spies alone.” ↩

道 is explained by Tu Mu as 其情泄形露之道 “the way in which facts leak out and dispositions are revealed.” ↩

為 is the reading of the standard text, but the Tʽung Tien, Yü Lan and Tʽu Shu all have 謂. ↩

Capt. Calthrop translates 神紀 “the Mysterious Thread,” but Mei Yao-chʽên’s paraphrase 神妙之綱紀 shows that what is meant is the control of a number of threads. ↩

“Cromwell, one of the greatest and most practical of all cavalry leaders, had officers styled ‘scout masters,’ whose business it was to collect all possible information regarding the enemy, through scouts and spies, etc., and much of his success in war traceable to the previous knowledge of the enemy’s moves thus gained.”791 ↩

鄉間 is the emended reading of Chia Lin and the Tʽu Shu for the unintelligible 因間, here and in the list of spies, of the standard text, which nevertheless reads 鄉間 in a later paragraph