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

Ein Mench, der um eures Dienstes halber den Strick waget, verdienet dafür belohnet zu werden.” ↩

Tu Mu gives a graphic touch: 出口入耳也, that is to say, all communications with spies should be carried on “mouth-to-ear.” Capt. Calthrop has: “All matters relating to spies are secret,” which is distinctly feeble. An inferior reading for 密 is 審. The following remarks on spies may be quoted from Turenne, who made perhaps larger use of them than any previous commander: “Spies are attached to those who give them most, he who pays them ill is never served. They should never be known to anybody; not should they know one another. When they propose anything very material, secure their persons, or have in your possession their wives and children as hostages for their fidelity. Never communicate anything to them but what it is absolutely necessary that they should know.”794 ↩

This is the nuance of Tu Yu’s paraphrase 不能得間人之用. ↩

Mei Yao-chʽên says: 知其情偽辨其邪正則能用 “In order to use them, one must know fact from falsehood, and be able to discriminate between honesty and double-dealing.” Wang Hsi takes 聖 and 智 separately, defining the former as 通而先識 “intuitive perception” and the latter as 明於事 “practical intelligence.” Tu Mu strangely refers these attributes to the spies themselves: 先量間者之性誠實多智然後可用之 “Before using spies we must assure ourselves as to their integrity of character and the extent of their experience and skill.” But he continues: 厚貌深情險於山川非聖人莫能知 “A brazen face and a crafty disposition are more dangerous than mountains or rivers; it takes a man of genius to penetrate such.” So that we are left in some doubt as to his real opinion on the passage. ↩

Chang Yü says that 仁 means “not grudging them honours and pay;” 義, “showing no distrust of their honesty.” “When you have attracted them by substantial offers, you must treat them with absolute sincerity; then they will work for you with all their might.” ↩

Mei Yao-chʽên says: “Be on your guard against the possibility of spies going over to the service of the enemy.” The Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan read 密 for 妙. ↩

Cf. chapter VI: 微乎微乎 “O divine art⁠ ⁠…” Capt. Calthrop translates: “Wonderful indeed is the power of spies.” ↩

The Chinese here is so concise and elliptical that some expansion is necessary for the proper understanding of it. 間事 denotes important information about the enemy obtained from a surviving spy. The subject of 未發, however, is not this information itself, but the secret strategem built up on the strength of it. 聞者 means “is heard”⁠—by anybody else. Thus, word for word, we get: “If spy matters are heard before [our plans] are carried out,” etc. Capt. Calthrop, in translating 間與所告者 “the spy who told the matter, and the man who repeated the same,” may appeal to the authority of the commentators; but he surely misses the main point of Sun Tzǔ’s injunction. For, whereas you kill the spy himself 惡其泄 “as a punishment for letting out the secret,” the object of killing the other man is only, as Chʽên Hao puts it, 以滅口 “to stop his mouth” and prevent the news leaking any further. If it had already been repeated to others, this object would not be gained. Either way, Sun Tzǔ lays himself open to the charge of inhumanity, though Tu Mu tries to defend him by saying that the man deserves to be put to death, for the spy would certainly not have told the secret unless the other had been at pains to worm it out of him. The Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan have the reading⁠ ⁠… 先聞其間者與, etc., which, while not affecting the sense, strikes me as being better than that of the standard text. The Tʽu Shu has⁠ ⁠… 聞與所告者, which I suppose would mean: “the man who heard the secret and the man who told it to him.” ↩

左右 is a comprehensive term for those who wait on others, servants and retainers generally. Capt. Calthrop is hardly happy in rendering it “right-hand men.” ↩

謁者, literally “visitors,” is equivalent, as Tu Yu says, to 主告事者 “those whose duty it is to keep the general supplied with information,” which naturally necessitates frequent interviews with him. Chang Yü goes too far afield for an explanation in saying that they are 典賓客之將 “the leaders of mercenary troops.” ↩

閽吏 and 守舍之人. ↩

守將, according to Chang Yü, is simply 守官仼職之將 “a general on active service.” Capt. Calthrop is wrong, I think, in making 守將 directly dependent on 姓名 (… “the names of the general in charge,” etc.). ↩

As the first step, no doubt, towards finding out if any of these important functionaries can be won over by bribery. Capt. Calthrop blunders badly with: “Then set the spies to watch them.” ↩

必索 is omitted by the Tʽung Tien and Yü Lan. Its recurrence is certainly suspicious, though the sense may seem to gain by it. The Tʽu Shu has this variation:⁠ ⁠… 敵間之來間吾者, etc. ↩

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