The Art Of War - The Oldest Military Treatise in the World

Sun Tzu

• Editore: Youcanprint
• Anno: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9788892661769
• Argomento: Letteratura
• Categoria: Classici

THE ART OF WAR is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician, and kindred to the Realpolitik of his time, termed in China as Legalism. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics, and "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name." It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and Beyond.

THE USE OF SPIES

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.⁴²⁵ There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.⁴²⁶ As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor.⁴²⁷

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,⁴²⁸ is the height of inhumanity.⁴²⁹

One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his sovereign, no master of victory.⁴³⁰

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.⁴³¹

Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,⁴³² nor by any deductive calculation.⁴³³

Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.⁴³⁴

Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.

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.⁴³⁵

Having LOCAL SPIES means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.⁴³⁶

Having INWARD SPIES, making use of officials of the enemy.⁴³⁷

Having CONVERTED SPIES, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.⁴³⁸

Having DOOMED SPIES, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.⁴³⁹

SURVIVING SPIES, finally, are those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.⁴⁴⁰

Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies.⁴⁴¹ None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.⁴⁴²

Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.⁴⁴³

They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.⁴⁴⁴

Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.⁴⁴⁵

Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.⁴⁴⁶

If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.⁴⁴⁷

Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm a city, or to assassinate an individual, it is always necessary to begin by finding out the names of the attendants, the aides-de- camp,⁴⁴⁸ and door-keepers and sentries of the general in command. Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.⁴⁴⁹

The enemy's spies who have come to spy on us must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted spies and available for our service.

It is through the information brought by the converted spy that we are able to acquire and employ local and inward spies. Tu Yu says: "through conversion of the enemy's spies we learn the enemy's condition." And Chang Yu says: "We must tempt the converted spy into our service, because it is he that knows which of the local inhabitants are greedy of gain, and which of the officials are open to corruption." ⁴⁵⁰

It is owing to his information, again, that we can cause the doomed spy to carry false tidings to the enemy.⁴⁵¹

Lastly, it is by his information that the surviving spy can be used on appointed occasions.

The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy.⁴⁵² Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.

Of old, the rise of the Yin dynasty⁴⁵³ was due to I Chih⁴⁵⁴ who had served under the Hsia. Likewise, the rise of the Chou dynasty was due to Lu Ya⁴⁵⁵ who had served under the Yin.⁴⁵⁶

Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results.⁴⁵⁷ Spies are a most important element in war, because on them depends an army's ability to move.⁴⁵⁸

Notes

[←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

[←9]

"They attached strings to wood to make bows, and sharpened wood to make arrows. The use of bows and arrows is to keep the Empire in awe."

[←10]

The son and successor of Ho Lu. He was finally defeated and overthrown by Kou chien, King of Yueh, in 473 B.C. See post.

[←11]

King Yen of Hsu, a fabulous being, of whom Sun Hsing-yen says in his preface: "His humanity brought him to destruction."

[←12]

The passage I have put in brackets is omitted in the T`U SHU, and may be an interpolation. It was known, however to Chang Shou-chieh of the T`ang dynasty, and appears in the T`AI P`ING YU LAN.

[←13]

Ts`ao Kung seems to be thinking of the first part of chap. II, perhaps especially of ss. 8.

[←14]

See chap. XI.

[←15]

On the other hand, it is noteworthy that WU TZU, which is not in 6 chapters, has 48 assigned to it in the HAN CHIH. Likewise, the CHUNG YUNG is credited with 49 chapters, though now only in one only. In the case of very short works, one is tempted to think that P`IEN might simply mean "leaves."

[←16]

Yeh Shih of the Sung dynasty [1151-1223].

[←17]

He hardly deserves to be bracketed with assassins.

[←18]

See Chapter 7, ss. 27 and Chapter 11, ss. 28.

[←19]

See Chapter 11, ss. 28. Chuan Chu is the abbreviated form of his name.

[←20]

I.e. Po P`ei. See ante.

[←21]

The nucleus of this work is probably genuine, though large additions have been made by later hands. Kuan chung died in 645 B.C.

[←22]

See infra, beginning of INTRODUCTION.

[←23]

I do not know what this work, unless it be the last chapter of another work. Why that chapter should be singled out, however, is not clear.

[←24]

About 480 B.C.

[←25]

That is, I suppose, the age of Wu Wang and Chou Kung.

[←26]

In the 3rd century B.C. 27 Ssu-ma Jang-chu, whose family name was T`ien, lived in the latter half of the 6th century B.C., and is also believed to have written a work on war. See SHIH CHI, ch. 64, and infra at the beginning of the INTRODUCTION.

[←27]

See Legge's Classics, vol. V, Prolegomena p. 27. Legge thinks that the TSO CHUAN must have been written in the 5th century, but not before ...

Indice dei contenuti

• I INTRODUCTION
• LAYING PLANS
• WAGING WAR
• ATTACK BY STRATAGEM
• TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS
• ENERGY
• WEAK POINTS AND STRONG
• MANEUVERING
• VARIATION IN TACTICS
• THE ARMY ON THE MARCH
• TERRAIN
• THE NINE SITUATIONS
• THE ATTACK BY FIRE
• THE USE OF SPIES