The Art of War | Page 7

store of personal observation
and experience. They reflect the mind not only of a born strategist,
gifted with a rare faculty of generalization, but also of a practical
soldier closely acquainted with the military conditions of his time. To
say nothing of the fact that these sayings have been accepted and
endorsed by all the greatest captains of Chinese history, they offer a
combination of freshness and sincerity, acuteness and common sense,
which quite excludes the idea that they were artificially concocted in
the study. If we admit, then, that the 13 chapters were the genuine
production of a military man living towards the end of the "CH`UN
CH`IU" period, are we not bound, in spite of the silence of the TSO
CHUAN, to accept Ssu-ma Ch`ien's account in its entirety? In view of
his high repute as a sober historian, must we not hesitate to assume that
the records he drew upon for Sun Wu's biography were false and
untrustworthy? The answer, I fear, must be in the negative. There is
still one grave, if not fatal, objection to the chronology involved in the
story as told in the SHIH CHI, which, so far as I am aware, nobody has
yet pointed out. There are two passages in Sun Tzu in which he alludes
to contemporary affairs. The first in in VI. ss. 21: --
Though according to my estimate the soldiers of Yueh exceed our own
in number, that shall advantage them nothing in the matter of victory. I
say then that victory can be achieved.
The other is in XI. ss. 30: --
Asked if an army can be made to imitate the SHUAI-JAN, I should
answer, Yes. For the men of Wu and the men of Yueh are enemies; yet
if they are crossing a river in the same boat and are caught by a storm,

they will come to each other's assistance just as the left hand helps the
right.
These two paragraphs are extremely valuable as evidence of the date of
composition. They assign the work to the period of the struggle
between Wu and Yueh. So much has been observed by Pi I-hsun. But
what has hitherto escaped notice is that they also seriously impair the
credibility of Ssu-ma Ch`ien's narrative. As we have seen above, the
first positive date given in connection with Sun Wu is 512 B.C. He is
then spoken of as a general, acting as confidential adviser to Ho Lu, so
that his alleged introduction to that monarch had already taken place,
and of course the 13 chapters must have been written earlier still. But at
that time, and for several years after, down to the capture of Ying in
506, Ch`u and not Yueh, was the great hereditary enemy of Wu. The
two states, Ch`u and Wu, had been constantly at war for over half a
century, [31] whereas the first war between Wu and Yueh was waged
only in 510, [32] and even then was no more than a short interlude
sandwiched in the midst of the fierce struggle with Ch`u. Now Ch`u is
not mentioned in the 13 chapters at all. The natural inference is that
they were written at a time when Yueh had become the prime
antagonist of Wu, that is, after Ch`u had suffered the great humiliation
of 506. At this point, a table of dates may be found useful.
B.C. | | 514 | Accession of Ho Lu. 512 | Ho Lu attacks Ch`u, but is
dissuaded from entering Ying, | the capital. SHI CHI mentions Sun Wu
as general. 511 | Another attack on Ch`u. 510 | Wu makes a successful
attack on Yueh. This is the first | war between the two states. 509 | or |
Ch`u invades Wu, but is signally defeated at Yu-chang. 508 | 506 | Ho
Lu attacks Ch`u with the aid of T`ang and Ts`ai. | Decisive battle of
Po-chu, and capture of Ying. Last | mention of Sun Wu in SHIH CHI.
505 | Yueh makes a raid on Wu in the absence of its army. Wu | is
beaten by Ch`in and evacuates Ying. 504 | Ho Lu sends Fu Ch`ai to
attack Ch`u. 497 | Kou Chien becomes King of Yueh. 496 | Wu attacks
Yueh, but is defeated by Kou Chien at Tsui-li. | Ho Lu is killed. 494 |
Fu Ch`ai defeats Kou Chien in the great battle of Fu- | chaio, and enters
the capital of Yueh. 485 | or | Kou Chien renders homage to Wu. Death
of Wu Tzu-hsu. 484 | 482 | Kou Chien invades Wu in the absence of Fu

Ch`ai. 478 | to | Further attacks by Yueh on Wu. 476 | 475 | Kou Chien
lays siege to the capital of Wu. 473 |