[Sun Tzu may at times appear to be over-cautious, but he never goes so far in
that direction as the remarkable passage in the
Tao Te Ching
, ch. 69. "I dare not
take the initiative, but prefer to act on the defensive; I dare not advance an inch,
but prefer to retreat a foot."]
18. No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his
own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.
19. If it is to your advantage,
make a forward move; if not, stay
where you are.
[This is repeated from XI. § 17. Here I feel convinced that it is an
interpolation, for it is evident that § 20 ought to follow immediately on § 18.]
20. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be
succeeded by content.
21. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come
again into being;
[The Wu State was destined to be a melancholy example of this saying.]
nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.
22. Hence the enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full
of caution. This is the way to keep a
country at peace and an army
intact.
[1] "Unless you enter the tiger's lair, you cannot get hold of the
tiger's cubs."
Chapter XIII. THE USE OF SPIES
1. Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and
marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a
drain on the resources of the State. The daily expenditure will amount
to a thousand ounces of silver.
[Cf. II. §§ 1, 13, 14.]
There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop
down exhausted on the highways.
[Cf.
Tao Te Ching
, ch. 30: "Where troops have been quartered, brambles and
thorns spring up. Chang Yu has the note: "We may be reminded of the saying:
'On
serious ground, gather in plunder.' Why then should carriage and
transportation cause exhaustion on the highways?—The answer is, that not
victuals alone, but all sorts of munitions of war have to be conveyed to the army.
Besides, the injunction to 'forage on the enemy' only means that when an army is
deeply engaged in hostile territory, scarcity of food must be provided against.
Hence, without being solely dependent on the enemy for corn, we must forage in
order that there may be an uninterrupted flow of supplies. Then, again, there are
places like salt deserts where provisions being unobtainable, supplies from home
cannot be dispensed with."]
As many as seven hundred thousand
families will be impeded in
their labor.
[Mei Yao-ch’en says: "Men will be lacking at the plough-tail." The allusion is
to the system of dividing land into nine parts, each consisting of about 15 acres,
the plot in the center being cultivated on behalf of the State by the tenants of the
other eight. It was here also, so Tu Mu tells us, that their cottages were built and
a well sunk, to be used by all in common. [See II. § 12, note.] In time of war, one
of the families had to serve in the army, while the other seven contributed to its
support. Thus, by a levy of 100,000 men (reckoning one able-bodied soldier to
each family) the husbandry of 700,000 families would be affected.]
2. Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the
victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in
ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the
outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments,
["For spies" is of course the meaning, though it would spoil the effect of this
curiously elaborate exordium if spies were actually mentioned at this point.]
is the height of inhumanity.
[Sun Tzu's agreement is certainly ingenious. He
begins by adverting to the
frightful misery and vast expenditure of blood and treasure which war always
brings in its train. Now, unless you are kept informed of the enemy's condition,
and are ready to strike at the right moment, a war may drag on for years. The
only way to get this information is to employ spies, and it is impossible to obtain
trustworthy spies unless they are properly paid for their services. But it is surely
false economy to grudge a comparatively trifling amount for this purpose, when
every day that the war lasts eats up an incalculably greater sum. This grievous
burden falls on the shoulders of the poor, and hence Sun Tzu concludes that to
neglect the use of spies is nothing less than a crime against humanity.]
3. One who acts thus is no leader of men,
no present help to his
sovereign, no master of victory.
[This idea, that the true object of war is peace, has its root in the national
temperament of the Chinese. Even so far back as 597 B.C., these memorable
words were uttered by Prince Chuang of the Ch’u State: "The [Chinese]
character for 'prowess' is made up of [the characters for] 'to stay' and 'a spear'
(cessation of hostilities). Military prowess is seen in the repression of cruelty, the
calling in of weapons, the preservation
of the appointment of Heaven, the firm
establishment of merit, the bestowal of happiness on the people, putting
harmony between the princes, the diffusion of wealth."]
4. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign
and the good general to
strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary
men, is
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
