Part 25

I.e., everybody can see superficially how a battle is won; what they cannot see is the long series of plans and combinations which has preceded the battle. It seems justifiable, then, to render the first 形 by “tactics” and the second by “strategy.”

28. 故其戰勝不復而應形於無窮

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.

As Wang Hsi sagely remarks: “There is but one root-principle (理) underlying victory, but the tactics (形) which lead up to it are infinite in number.” With this compare Col. Henderson; “The rules of strategy are few and simple. They may be learned in a week. They may be taught by familiar illustrations or a dozen diagrams. But such knowledge will no more teach a man to lead an army like Napoleon than a knowledge of grammar will teach him to write like Gibbon.”

29. 夫兵形象水水之行避高而趨下

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.

行 is 劉晝子 Liu Chou-tzŭ’s reading for 形 in the original text.

30. 兵之形避實而擊虛

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.

Like water, taking the line of least resistance.

31. 水因地而制流兵因敵而制勝

Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows;

The T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan read 制形,—the latter also 制行. The present text is derived from Chêng Yu-hsien.

the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.

32. 故兵無常勢水無常形

Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

33. 能因敵變化而取勝者謂之神

He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

34. 故五行無常勝四時無常位日有短長月有死生

The five elements

Water, fire, wood, metal, earth.

are not always equally predominant;

That is, as Wang Hsi says: 迭相克也 “they predominate alternately.”

the four seasons make way for each other in turn.

Literally, “have no invariable seat.”

There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.

Cf. V. § 6. The purport of the passage is simply to illustrate the want of fixity in war by the changes constantly taking place in Nature. The comparison is not very happy, however, because the regularity of the phenomena which Sun Tzŭ mentions is by no means paralleled in war.

VII. 軍爭篇