Part 40

Clamour by night betokens nervousness.

Owing to false alarms; or, as Tu Mu explains it: 恐懼不安故夜呼以 自壯也 “Fear makes men restless; so they fall to shouting at night in order to keep up their courage.” The T‘ung Tien inserts 喧 before 呼.

33. 軍擾者將不重也旌旗動者亂也吏怒者倦也

If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot.

The T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan omit 旌.

If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.

And therefore, as Capt. Calthrop says, slow to obey. Tu Yu understands the sentence differently: “If all the officers of an army are angry with their general, it means that they are broken with fatigue” [owing to the exertions which he has demanded from them].

34. 粟馬肉食軍無懸缻不返其舍者窮宼也

When an army feeds its horses with grain and kills its cattle for food,

粟馬肉食 is expanded by Mei Yao-ch‘ên (following Tu Mu) into 給糧以𥞊乎馬殺畜以饗乎士, which is the sense I have given above. In the ordinary course of things, the men would be fed on grain and the horses chiefly on grass.

and when the men do not hang their cooking-pots

The T‘ung Tien reads 缶, which is much the same as 缻, and the Yü Lan 箠, which is manifestly wrong.

over the camp-fires, showing that they will not return to their tents,

For 返, the T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan both read 及.

you may know that they are determined to fight to the death.

For 窮宼, see VII. § 36. I may quote here the illustrative passage from the Hou Han Shu, ch. 71, given in abbreviated form by the P‘ei Wên Yün Fu: “The rebel 王國 Wang Kuo of 梁 Liang was besieging the town of 陳倉 Ch‘ên-ts‘ang, and 皇甫嵩 Huang-fu Sung, who was in supreme command, and 董卓 Tung Cho were sent out against him. The latter pressed for hasty measures, but Sung turned a deaf ear to his counsel. At last the rebels were utterly worn out, and began to throw down their weapons of their own accord. Sung was now for advancing to the attack, but Cho said: ‘It is a principle of war not to pursue desperate men and not to press a retreating host.’ Sung answered: ‘That does not apply here. What I am about to attack is a jaded army, not a retreating host; with disciplined troops I am falling on a disorganised multitude, not a band of desperate men.’ Thereupon he advanced to the attack unsupported by his colleague, and routed the enemy, Wang Kuo being slain.” The inferior reading of the T‘u Shu for § 34 is as follows: 殺馬肉食者 軍無糧也懸缻不返其舍者窮宼也. The first clause strikes me as rather shallow for Sun Tzŭ, and it is hard to make anything of 懸缻 in the second without the negative. Capt. Calthrop, nothing daunted, set down in his first edition: “When they cast away their cooking-pots.” He now has: “When the cooking-pots are hung up on the wall.”

35. 諄諄翕翕徐言入入者失衆也

The sight of men whispering together

諄諄 is well explained by Tu Mu as 乏氣聲促 “speaking with bated breath.”

in small knots

The Shuo Wên rather strangely defines 翕 by the word 起, but the Êrh Ya says 合 “to join” or “contract,” which is undoubtedly its primary meaning. Chang Yü is right, then, in explaining it here by the word 聚. The other commentators are very much at sea: Ts‘ao Kung says 失志貌, Tu Yu 不眞, Tu Mu 顚倒失次貌, Chia Lin 不安貌, Mei Yao-ch‘ên 曠職事, Wang Hsi 患其上.

or speaking in subdued tones

入入 is said to be the same as 如如.

points to disaffection amongst the rank and file.

失衆 is equivalent to 失其衆心, the subject of course being “the general,” understood. In the original text, which seems to be followed by several commentators, the whole passage stands thus: 諄諄翕翕徐與人言者失衆也. Here it would be the general who is talking to his men, not the men amongst themselves. For 翕, which is the chief stumbling-block in the way of this reading, the T‘u Shu gives the very plausible emendation 𧬈 (also read hsi, and defined by K‘ang Hsi as 疾言 “to speak fast”). But this is unnecessary if we keep to the standard text.

36. 屢賞者窘也數罰者困也

Too frequent rewards signify that the enemy is at the end of his resources;

Because, when an army is hard pressed, as Tu Mu says, there is always a fear of mutiny, and lavish rewards are given to keep the men in good temper.