The Art of War | Page 4

father of Sun Pin. According to this
account then, Pin was the grandson of Wu, which, considering that Sun
Pin's victory over Wei was gained in 341 B.C., may be dismissed as
chronological impossible. Whence these data were obtained by Teng
Ming-shih I do not know, but of course no reliance whatever can be
placed in them. An interesting document which has survived from the
close of the Han period is the short preface written by the Great Ts`ao

Ts`ao, or Wei Wu Ti, for his edition of Sun Tzu. I shall give it in full: --
I have heard that the ancients used bows and arrows to their advantage.
[10] The SHU CHU mentions "the army" among the "eight objects of
government." The I CHING says: "'army' indicates firmness and justice;
the experienced leader will have good fortune." The SHIH CHING says:
"The King rose majestic in his wrath, and he marshaled his troops."
The Yellow Emperor, T`ang the Completer and Wu Wang all used
spears and battle-axes in order to succor their generation. The SSU-MA
FA says: "If one man slay another of set purpose, he himself may
rightfully be slain." He who relies solely on warlike measures shall be
exterminated; he who relies solely on peaceful measures shall perish.
Instances of this are Fu Ch`ai [11] on the one hand and Yen Wang on
the other. [12] In military matters, the Sage's rule is normally to keep
the peace, and to move his forces only when occasion requires. He will
not use armed force unless driven to it by necessity. Many books have I
read on the subject of war and fighting; but the work composed by Sun
Wu is the profoundest of them all. [Sun Tzu was a native of the Ch`i
state, his personal name was Wu. He wrote the ART OF WAR in 13
chapters for Ho Lu, King of Wu. Its principles were tested on women,
and he was subsequently made a general. He led an army westwards,
crushed the Ch`u state and entered Ying the capital. In the north, he
kept Ch`i and Chin in awe. A hundred years and more after his time,
Sun Pin lived. He was a descendant of Wu.] [13] In his treatment of
deliberation and planning, the importance of rapidity in taking the field,
[14] clearness of conception, and depth of design, Sun Tzu stands
beyond the reach of carping criticism. My contemporaries, however,
have failed to grasp the full meaning of his instructions, and while
putting into practice the smaller details in which his work abounds,
they have overlooked its essential purport. That is the motive which has
led me to outline a rough explanation of the whole.
One thing to be noticed in the above is the explicit statement that the 13
chapters were specially composed for King Ho Lu. This is supported by
the internal evidence of I. ss. 15, in which it seems clear that some ruler
is addressed. In the bibliographic section of the HAN SHU, there is an
entry which has given rise to much discussion: "The works of Sun Tzu

of Wu in 82 P`IEN (or chapters), with diagrams in 9 CHUAN." It is
evident that this cannot be merely the 13 chapters known to Ssu-ma
Ch`ien, or those we possess today. Chang Shou-chieh refers to an
edition of Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR of which the "13 chapters" formed
the first CHUAN, adding that there were two other CHUAN besides.
This has brought forth a theory, that the bulk of these 82 chapters
consisted of other writings of Sun Tzu -- we should call them
apocryphal -- similar to the WEN TA, of which a specimen dealing
with the Nine Situations [15] is preserved in the T`UNG TIEN, and
another in Ho Shin's commentary. It is suggested that before his
interview with Ho Lu, Sun Tzu had only written the 13 chapters, but
afterwards composed a sort of exegesis in the form of question and
answer between himself and the King. Pi I-hsun, the author of the SUN
TZU HSU LU, backs this up with a quotation from the WU YUEH
CH`UN CH`IU: "The King of Wu summoned Sun Tzu, and asked him
questions about the art of war. Each time he set forth a chapter of his
work, the King could not find words enough to praise him." As he
points out, if the whole work was expounded on the same scale as in
the above- mentioned fragments, the total number of chapters could not
fail to be considerable. Then the numerous other treatises attributed to
Sun Tzu might be included. The fact that the HAN CHIH mentions no
work of Sun Tzu except the 82 P`IEN, whereas the Sui and T`ang
bibliographies give the titles of others in addition