I. LAYING PLANS
3. The art of war, 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.4. These are:
1 The Moral Law; (5,6) 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.
2 Heaven; (7) signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
3 Earth; (8) comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
4 The Commander; (9) stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
5 Method and discipline. (10) army in its proper subdivisions, graduations of rank among the officers, maintenance of roads, and the control of military expenditure.
11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.
II. WAGING WAR
20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.
III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM
17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
IV. TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS
13. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
14. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.
17. In respect of military method, we have, firstly, Measurement; secondly, Estimation of quantity; thirdly, Calculation; fourthly, Balancing of chances; fifthly, Victory.
18. Measurement owes its existence to Earth; Estimation of quantity to Measurement; Calculation to Estimation of quantity; Balancing of chances to Calculation; and Victory to Balancing of chances.
V. ENERGY
19. Thus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something that the enemy may snatch at it.
21. The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals...
22. ... his fighting men become as it were like unto rolling logs or stones.
23. Thus the energy developed by good fighting men is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So much on the subject of energy.
VI. WEAK POINTS AND STRONG
9. O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; 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.
13. By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy's must be divide.
16. The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points
34. The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) are not always equally predominant; the four seasons make way for each other in turn. There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.
VII. MANEUVERING
19. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
21. Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.
22. He will conquer who has learnt the artifice of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.
VIII. VARIATION IN TACTICS
10. Reduce the hostile chiefs by inflicting damage on them; and make trouble for them, and keep them constantly engaged; hold out specious allurements, and make them rush to any given point.
12. There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:
(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.
13. These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war.
IX. THE ARMY ON THE MARCH
11. All armies prefer high ground to low and sunny places to dark.
12. If you are careful of your men and camp on hard ground, the army will be free from disease of every kind, and this will spell victory.
24. Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.
35. The sight of men whispering together in small knots or speaking in subdued tones points to disaffection amongst the rank and file.
43. Therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by means of iron discipline. This is a certain road to victory.
X. TERRAIN
1. Sun Tzu said: We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit:
(1) Accessible ground; Ground which can be freely traversed by both sides
(2) entangling ground; can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy
(3) temporizing ground; neither side will gain by making the first move
(4) narrow passes; if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy. If not do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.
(5) precipitous heights; if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there wait for him to come up. If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.
(6) positions at a great distance from the enemy. If the strength of the two armies is equal, it is not easy to provoke a battle, and fighting will be to your disadvantage.
13. These six are the principles connected with Earth. The general who has attained a responsible post must be careful to study them.
14. Now an army is exposed to six several calamities, not arising from natural causes, but from faults for which the general is responsible. These are:
(1) Flight; if one force is hurled against another ten times its size, the result will be the flight of the former.
(2) insubordination; When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak,
(3) collapse; When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak,
(4) ruin; When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate,
(5) disorganization; When the general is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixes duties assigned to officers and men, and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner,
(6) rout. unable to estimate the enemy's strength, allows an inferior force to engage a larger one, or hurls a weak detachment against a powerful one, and neglects to place picked soldiers in the front rank
20. These are six ways of courting defeat, which must be carefully noted by the general who has attained a responsible post.
31. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.
XI. THE NINE SITUATIONS
1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground:
(1) Dispersive ground; chieftain is fighting in his own territory,
(2) facile ground; penetrated into hostile territory, but to no great distance,
(3) contentious ground; great advantage to either side,
(4) open ground; each side has liberty of movement
(5) ground of intersecting highways; he who occupies it first has most of the Empire at his command,
(6) serious ground; the heart of a hostile country, leaving a number of fortified cities in its rear,
(7) difficult ground; Mountain forests, rugged steeps, marshes and fens--all country that is hard to traverse:
(8) hemmed-in ground; is reached through narrow gorges, and from which we can only retire by tortuous paths, so that a small number of the enemy would suffice to crush a large body of our men:
(9) desperate ground. can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay,
65. If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.
68. At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.
XII. THE ATTACK BY FIRE
2. In order to carry out an attack, we must have means available. The material for raising fire should always be kept in readiness.
XIII. THE USE OF SPIES
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 foreknowledge.
5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.
6. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes:
(1) Local spies; employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.
(2) inward spies; making use of officials of the enemy.
(3) converted spies; getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.
(4) doomed spies; doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.
(5) surviving spies. those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.
8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.
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