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shun places that are defended, attack in unexpected
quarters."]
7. You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you
only attack places which are undefended.
[Wang Hsi explains "undefended places" as "weak
points; that is to say, where the general is lacking in
capacity, or the soldiers in spirit; where the walls are not
strong enough, or the precautions not strict enough; where
relief comes too late, or provisions are too scanty, or the
defenders are variance amongst themselves."]
You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only
hold positions that cannot be attacked.
[I.e., where there are none of the weak points mentioned
above. There is rather a nice point involved in the
interpretation of this later clause. Tu Mu, Ch`en Hao, and
Mei Yao-ch`en assume the meaning to be: "In order to make
your defense quite safe, you must defend EVEN those
places that are not likely to be attacked;" and Tu Mu adds:
"How much more, then, those that will be attacked." Taken
thus, however, the clause balances less well with the
preceding always a consideration in the highly antithetical
style which is natural to the Chinese. Chang Yu, therefore,
seems to come nearer the mark in saying: "He who is skilled
in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven
[see IV. ss. 7], making it impossible for the enemy to guard
against him. This being so, the places that I shall attack are
precisely those that the enemy cannot defend He who is
skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the
earth, making it impossible for the enemy to estimate his
whereabouts. This being so, the places that I shall hold are
precisely those that the enemy cannot attack."]
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8. Hence that general is skillful in attack whose
opponent does not know what to defend; and he is
skillful in defense whose opponent does not know
what to attack.
[An aphorism which puts the whole art of war in a
nutshell.]
9. O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we
learn to be invisible, through you inaudible;
[Literally, "without form or sound," but it is said of course
with reference to the enemy.]
and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our
hands.
10. You may advance and be absolutely irresistible, if
you make for the enemy's weak points; you may
retire and be safe from pursuit if your movements
are more rapid than those of the enemy.
11. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an
engagement even though he be sheltered behind a
high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is
attack some other place that he will be obliged to
relieve.
[Tu Mu says: "If the enemy is the invading party, we can
cut his line of communications and occupy the roads by
which he will have to return; if we are the invaders, we may
direct our attack against the sovereign himself." It is clear
that Sun Tzu, unlike certain generals in the late Boer war,
was no believer in frontal attacks.]
12. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the
enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our
encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All
we need do is to throw something odd and
unaccountable in his way.
[This extremely concise expression is intelligibly
paraphrased by Chia Lin: "even though we have constructed
neither wall nor ditch." Li Ch`uan says: "we puzzle him by
strange and unusual dispositions;" and Tu Mu finally
The Art of War by Sun Tzu 67
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clinches the meaning by three illustrative anecdotes one of
Chu-ko Liang, who when occupying Yang-p`ing and about to
be attacked by Ssu-ma I, suddenly struck his colors, stopped
the beating of the drums, and flung open the city gates,
showing only a few men engaged in sweeping and sprinkling
the ground. This unexpected proceeding had the intended
effect; for Ssu-ma I, suspecting an ambush, actually drew off
his army and retreated. What Sun Tzu is advocating here,
therefore, is nothing more nor less than the timely use of
"bluff."]
13. By discovering the enemy's dispositions and
remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our
forces concentrated, while the enemy's must be
divided.
[The conclusion is perhaps not very obvious, but Chang
Yu (after Mei Yao-ch`en) rightly explains it thus: "If the
enemy's dispositions are visible, we can make for him in one
body; whereas, our own dispositions being kept secret, the
enemy will be obliged to divide his forces in order to guard
against attack from every quarter."]
14. We can form a single united body, while the enemy
must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a
whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]