I. LAYING PLANS.

This is the only possible meaning of g-|-, which M. Amiot and Capt. Calthrop wrongly translate "Fondements de 1'art militaire" and "First principles" respectively. Ts'ao Kung says it refers to the deliberations in the temple selected by the general for his temporary use, or as we should say, in his tent. See §26.
i . Sun Tzii said : The art of war is of vital importance to the State.
2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
The old text of the Tung Tien has $r $g £ J# ft jfc £ || ,
etc. Later editors have inserted l|j after j£ , and J^ before ^-|* . The former correction is perhaps superfluous, but the latter seems neces- sary in order to make sense, and is supported by the accepted reading in § 12, where the same words recur. I am inclined to think, however, that the whole sentence from jdfc to 'H|| is an interpolation and has no business here at all. If it be retained, Wang Hsi must be right in saying that g-(- denotes the "seven considerations" in § 13. 'fjfj are the circumstances or conditions likely to bring about victory or defeat. The antecedent of the first is J ; of the second, J^ • >
4. -
contains the idea of "comparison with the enemy," which cannot well be brought out here, but will appear in § 12. Altogether, difficult though it is, the passage is not so hopelessly corrupt as to justify Capt. Calthrop in burking it entirely.
4. These are : (i) The Moral Law ; (2) Heaven ; (3) Earth ; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
It appears from what follows that Sun Tzti means by j|f^ a Principle of harmony, not unlike the Tao of Lao Tzu in its moral aspect. One might be tempted to render it by "morale," were it not considered as an attribute of the ruler in § 13.
5, 6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
The original text omits ^ ^jjj, inserts an J£J after each ~flj*, and omits JjjJ after ffjj . Capt. Calthrop translates : "If the ruling authority be upright, the people are united" • — a very pretty sentiment, but wholly out of place in what purports to be a translation of Sun Tzu.
7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
The commentators, I think, make an unnecessary mystery of (^ ||J|? . Thus Meng Shih defines the words as Mil & Tjft &S "the hard and
Inl'J s\^ JHL /MO
the soft, waxing and waning," which does not help us much. Wang Hsi, however, may be right in saying that what is meant is jUj ^ ^ "the general economy of Heaven," including the five elements, the four sea- sons, wind and clouds, and other phenomena.
8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
^E ^fe (omitted by Capt. Calthrop) may have been included here because the safety of an army depends largely on its quickness to turn these geographical features to account.
10. & ^ ft id g- g ± ffl
9. 7^£ Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.
The five cardinal virtues of the Chinese are (i) f"! humanity or benevolence; (2) l|| uprightness of mind; (3) jj|J| self-respect, self-control, or "proper feeling;" (4) ^ wisdom; (5) -jpj sincerity or good faith. Here >JU and >j=| are put before ^^ , and the two military virtues of "courage" and "strictness" substituted for l|h and ifi® .
10. By Method and discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the gradations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
The Chinese of this sentence is so concise as to be practically unintel- ligible without commentary. I have followed the interpretation of Ts'ao Kung, who joins |Qj ^j|J and again ^ J^ . Others take each of the six predicates separately. f[j| has the somewhat uncommon sense of "cohort" or division of an army. Capt. Calthrop translates: "Partition and ordering of troops," which only covers ^ ^j|J .
1 1 . These five heads should be familiar to every general : he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.
12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise : -
The Yu Lan has an interpolated ^ before g-J* . It is obvious, how- ever, that the ^L ^jf Just enumerated cannot be described as g-f. Capt. Calthrop, forced to give some rendering of the words which he had omitted in § 3, shows himself decidedly hazy: "Further, with regard to these and the following seven matters, the condition of the enemy must be compared with our own." He does not appear to see that the seven queries or considerations which follow arise directly out of the Five heads, instead of being supplementary to them.
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13. (i) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?