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Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter VII - Maneuvering

  1. Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign.
  2. Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter VI - Weak Points And Strong

[Chang Yu attempts to explain the sequence of chapters as follows: "Chapter IV, on Tactical Dispositions, treated of the offensive and the defensive; chapter V, on Energy, dealt with direct and indirect methods. The good general acquaints himself first with the theory of attack and defense, and then turns his attention to direct and indirect methods. He studies the art of varying and combining these two methods before proceeding to the subject of weak and strong points.

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter V - Energy

  1. Sun Tzu said: The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.

    [That is, cutting up the army into regiments, companies, etc., with subordinate officers in command of each. Tu Mu reminds us of Han Hsin's famous reply to the first Han Emperor, who once said to him: "How large an army do you think I could lead?" "Not more than 100,000 men, your Majesty." "And you?" asked the Emperor. "Oh!" he answered, "the more the better."]

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter IV - Tactical Dispositions

[Ts`ao Kung explains the Chinese meaning of the words for the title of this chapter: "marching and countermarching on the part of the two armies with a view to discovering each other's condition." Tu Mu says: "It is through the dispositions of an army that its condition may be discovered.

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter III - Attack By Stratagem

  1. Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter II - Waging War

[Ts`ao Kung has the note: "He who wishes to fight must first count the cost," which prepares us for the discovery that the subject of the chapter is not what we might expect from the title, but is primarily a consideration of ways and means.]

 

Suntzu - Art of War - Chapter I - Laying Plans

[Ts`ao Kung, in defining the meaning of the Chinese for the title of this chapter, 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. ss. 26.]

 

Suntzu - Art of War - Footnotes

  1. SHI CHI, ch. 65.
  2. He reigned from 514 to 496 B.C.
  3. SHI CHI, ch. 130.
  4. The appellation of Nang Wa.
  5. SHI CHI, ch. 31.
  6. SHI CHI, ch. 25.
  7. The appellation of Hu Yen, mentioned in ch. 39 under the year 637.
  8. Wang-tzu Ch`eng-fu, ch. 32, year 607.

Suntzu - Art of War - Bibliography

The following are the oldest Chinese treatises on war, after Sun Tzu. The notes on each have been drawn principally from the SSU K`U CH`UAN SHU CHIEN MING MU LU, ch. 9, fol. 22 sqq.

Suntzu - Art of War - Appreciations of Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu has exercised a potent fascination over the minds of some of China's greatest men. Among the famous generals who are known to have studied his pages with enthusiasm may be mentioned Han Hsin (d. 196 B.C.), [49] Feng I (d. 34 A.D.), [50] Lu Meng (d. 219), [51] and Yo Fei (1103-1141). [52] The opinion of Ts`ao Kung, who disputes with Han Hsin the highest place in Chinese military annals, has already been recorded. [53]

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