Part 43

be before the enemy in occupying the raised and sunny spots,

See IX. § 2. The T‘ung Tien reads 先據其地.

and carefully guard your line of supplies.

A curious use of 利 as a verb, if our text is right. The general meaning is doubtless, as Tu Yu says, 無使敵絶己糧道 “not to allow the enemy to cut your communications.” Tu Mu, who was not a soldier and can hardly have had any practical experience of fighting, goes more into detail and speaks of protecting the line of communications by a wall (壘), or enclosing it by embankments on each side (作甬道)! In view of Napoleon’s dictum, “the secret of war lies in the communications,” we could wish that Sun Tzŭ had done more than skirt the edge of this important subject here and in I. § 10, VII. § 11. Col. Henderson says: “The line of supply may be said to be as vital to the existence of an army as the heart to the life of a human being. Just as the duellist who finds his adversary’s point menacing him with certain death, and his own guard astray, is compelled to conform to his adversary’s movements, and to content himself with warding off his thrusts, so the commander whose communications are suddenly threatened finds himself in a false position, and he will be fortunate if he has not to change all his plans, to split up his force into more or less isolated detachments, and to fight with inferior numbers on ground which he has not had time to prepare, and where defeat will not be an ordinary failure, but will entail the ruin or the surrender of his whole army.”

Then you will be able to fight with advantage.

Omitted by Capt. Calthrop.

4. 可以往難以返曰挂

Ground which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy is called entangling.

Capt. Calthrop is wrong in translating 返 “retreat from it.”

5. 挂形者敵無備出而勝之敵若有備出而不勝難以返不利

From a position of this sort, if the enemy is unprepared, you may sally forth and defeat him. But if the enemy is prepared for your coming, and you fail to defeat him, then, return being impossible, disaster will ensue.

不利 (an example of litotes) is paraphrased by Mei Yao-ch‘ên as 必受制 “you will receive a check.”

6. 我出而不利彼出而不利曰支

When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporising ground.

俱不便久相持也 “Each side finds it inconvenient to move, and the situation remains at a deadlock” (Tu Yu).

7. 支形者敵雖利我我無出也引而去令敵半出而擊之利

In a position of this sort, even though the enemy should offer us an attractive bait,

Tu Yu says 佯背我去 “turning their backs on us and pretending to flee.” But this is only one of the lures which might induce us to quit our position. Here again 利 is used as a verb, but this time in a different sense: “to hold out an advantage to.”

it will be advisable not to stir forth, but rather to retreat, thus enticing the enemy in his turn; then, when part of his army has come out, we may deliver our attack with advantage.

Mei Yao-ch‘ên paraphrases the passage in a curious jingle, the scheme of rhymes being abcbdd: 各居所險，先出必敗，利而誘我，我不可愛，僞去引敵，半出而擊.

8. 隘形者我先居之必盈之以待敵

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first,

Capt. Calthrop says: “Defiles, make haste to occupy.” But this is a conditional clause, answering to 若敵先居之 in the next paragraph.

let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.

Because then, as Tu Yu observes, 皆制在我然後出奇以制敵 “the initiative will lie with us, and by making sudden and unexpected attacks we shall have the enemy at our mercy.” The commentators make a great pother about the precise meaning of 盈, which to the foreign reader seems to present no difficulty whatever.

9. 若敵先居之盈而勿從不盈而從之

Should the enemy forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

10. 險形者我先居之必居高陽以待敵