"The second is `terrain restrictions,' which refers to prohibiting and stopping passage along the roads in order to ensnare external, perverse forces.
"The third, `preserving the chariots,'152 refers to the chariot commanders and infantry leaders being mutually dependent, the three [officers in the chariot] and the squads of five being cohesive in order to bind them together.
"The fourth, `opening and plugging up,'153 refers to dividing the terrain with boundaries and having each man die performing his appointed function, securely defending his position.
"The fifth, `demarking boundaries,' refers to the left and right restraining each other, front and rear awaiting each other, and a wall of chariots creating a solid defense in order to oppose the enemy and stop [them].154
"The sixth, `commands are distinguished,' refers to the forward rows concentrating on advancing, thereby being distinguished from those in the rear who are not able to compete to be the first to ascend... nor overstep their positions.
"The seventh, `five emblems,' refers to distinguishing the rows [with emblems] so that the troops will not be disordered.156
"The eighth, `preserving the units,' refers to the units breaking up and following each other, each having their appointed sections.
"The ninth, `gongs and drums,' refers to stimulating them to achievement and compelling them to virtue.
"The tenth, `arraying the chariots,' refers to making the formation tight, with the spears deployed to the front,157 and putting blinders on the horses' eyes.
"The eleventh, `warriors of death,' refers to selecting the talented and wise158 from among masses of the army to ride in the war chariots. They race forward and back, across and about, using unorthodox tactics to gain mastery over the enemy.
"The twelfth, `strong troops,' refers to regulating the flags1S9 and preserving the units. Without the flags [signaling an order], they do not move.
"When the instructions for these twelve have been successfully taught, anyone who contravenes an order should not be pardoned. If the army is weak, they will be able to strengthen it. If a ruler is unknown, they will be able to honor him. If orders become enervated, they will be able to revitalize them. If the people become migrants, they will be able to attract them. If the people are numerous, they will be able to govern them. If the territory is vast, they will be able to defend it. Without the state's chariots crossing the thresholds nor the variegated armor being taken out of the storage bags, your awesomeness will cause All under Heaven to submit.
"Soldiers have five defining commitments:"' For their general they forget their families; when they cross the border they forget their relatives; when they confront the enemy they forget themselves; when they are committed to die they will live; urgently seeking victory is the lowest. One hundred men willing to suffer the pain of a blade can penetrate a line and cause chaos in a formation. One thousand men willing to suffer the pain of a blade can seize the enemy and kill its general. Ten thousand men willing to suffer the pain of a blade can transverse under Heaven at will."
King Wu asked T'ai Kung Wang: "In a short time161 I want to exhaustively attain the essentials of employing men." Wang replied: "Your rewards should be like mountains, your punishments like valleys. The supreme makes no errors, the next corrects his mistakes.162 Now anyone who, when about to be punished, requests that he not be punished should die. Anyone who, when about to be rewarded, requests that he not be rewarded should die.163
"Attack a country according to its changes.I6a Display riches in order to observe their poverty. Display exhaustion in order to observe their illness. If the ruler is immoral and the people disaffected, in cases such as these one has a basis for attack.
"In general, whenever about to mobilize the army, you must first investigate the strategic balance of power [ch'uan] both within and without the borders in order to calculate whether to mount a campaign. [You must know] whether the army is well prepared or suffers from inadequacies, whether there is a surplus or shortage of foodstuffs. You must determine the routes for advancing and returning. Only thereafter can you mobilize the army to attack the chaotic and be certain of being able to enter his state.
"If the territory is vast but the cities small, you must first occupy their land. If the cities are large but the land narrow, you must first attack their cit ies. If the country is vast and the populace few, then isolate their strategic points. If the land is confined but the people numerous, then construct high mounds in order to overlook them. Do not destroy their material profits nor seize the people's agricultural seasons. Be magnanimous toward his government [officials], stabilize [the people's] occupations, and provide relief for their impoverished for then [your Virtue] will be sufficient to overspread All under Heaven.
"Today warring states attack each other and mount large-scale assaults on the virtuous. From the squads to the platoons, from the platoons to the army, none have unified orders. They cause the people to have unsettled minds; they only incline toward arrogance and extravagance. Their plans are calamities; they are constantly involved in disputes, so the officers spend their time investigating matters. These are entanglements and moreover bring about defeat. Even after the sun has set the road remains long, and when [the soldiers] return to camp they are dispirited. The army is old, the general covetous. Since he will fight to seize material gains, he is easily defeated.
"When the general is light, the fortifications low, and the people's minds unstable, they can be attacked. If the general is weighty and the fortifications are high but the masses are afraid, they can be encircled. In general, whenever you encircle someone you must provide them with a prospect for some minor advantage, causing them to become weaker day by day.165 Then the defenders will be forced to reduce their rations until they have nothing to eat. When their masses fight with each other at night, they are terrified. If the masses avoid their work, they have become disaffected. 166 If they just wait for others to come and rescue them and when the time for battle arrives they are tense, they have all lost their will167 and are dispirited. Dispirit defeats an army; distorted plans defeat a state."
"Weapons are inauspicious implements. Conflict is a contrary Virtue.' 69 All affairs must have their foundation. Therefore when a true king attacks the brutal and chaotic, he takes benevolence and righteousness as the foundation for it. [At the present time] the warring states then establish their awesomeness, resist their enemies, and plot against each other. Thus they cannot abandon their armies.
"The military takes the martial as its trunk, and takes the civil as its seed.10 It makes the martial its exterior, and the civil the interior. One who can investigate and fathom the two will know victory and defeat. The civil is the means to discern benefit and harm, to discriminate security and danger. The martial is the means to contravene a strong enemy, to forcefully attack and defend.
"One who is unified will be victorious;171 one who is beset by dissension will be defeated. When formations are tight they are solid; when the front is dispersed it can attain its [objectives].172 One whose troops fear their general far more than the enemy will be victorious. One whose troops fear the enemy far more than their general will be defeated. Thus to know who will be victorious, who defeated, weight your general with the enemy. The enemy and your general are like a steelyard and balance. If [the general] is settled and quiet, [the troops] are well-ordered; if he is brutal and hasty, they are in chaos.173
"Sending troops forth and deploying the army have standard orders; the dispersal and density of the lines and squads have standard methods; and arraying the rows from front to rear has its appropriateness and suitability. Standard orders are not employed when pursuing a fleeing enemy or suddenly striking a city. If the front and rear are disordered, then [the army] loses [its integrity]. If anyone causes confusion among the lines, behead him.
"The standard deployment for formations is always facing toward the enemy. There are also internally oriented formations, externally oriented formations, standing formations, a
nd sitting formations. Internally oriented formations provide the means to preserve the center; externally oriented formations provide the means to prepare against external threats. Standing formations are the means to move, sitting formations the means to stop. Mixed formations-with some soldiers standing, others sitting-respond to each other in accord with the need to move or stop, with the general being in the middle. The weapons of the seated soldiers are the sword and ax; the weapons of the standing soldiers are the spear-tipped halberd and crossbow; the general also occupies the middle.
"Those who excel at repulsing the enemy first join battle with orthodox troops, then [use unorthodox ones] to control them. This is the technique for certain victory.
"Array the fu and yueh axes [for punishment], make a display of the emblems and flags [used as rewards]. Those who have merit must be rewarded; those who contravene orders must die. The preservation or destruction of the state and the life or death of the soldiers lie at the tips of the [general's] drumsticks. Even though there are those under Heaven who excel at commanding armies, no one will be able to repulse them.
"Before arrows have been shot and cross in flight, before the long blades have clashed, those who yell out first are termed `vacuous,' those who yell out afterward are termed `substantial,' and those who do not yell are termed `secretive.' `Vacuous' and `substantial' are the embodiment of warfare."
"Units are dispatched from the main army to undertake advance preparations for defense. They should set up observation posts along the borders every three to five Ii. When they hear that the main army is making preparations to advance, mount a defense, and engage in battle, they should prohibit all movement in order to provide security to the state.
"When troops from the interior are about to set out for border duty, have the commanding officer provide them with their flags, drums, halberds, and armor. On the day for issuing forth, anyone who arrives after the commanding officer has gone out beyond the district border shall be liable for the law for late arrival for border duty.
"The term of border duty for a soldier is one year. Anyone who leaves before being replaced shall be punished analogously to the law for deserting the army. If his parents, wife, or children know about it, they will share the crime with him. If they do not know about it, pardon them.
"If a soldier arrives at the headquarters of the Grand General a day after his commanding officer, his parents, wife, and children should all share the crime with him. If a soldier abandons his post to return home for a day and his parents, wife, or children do not arrest [him], hold him, or report it, they should also share the crime with him.
"If they should lose their commanding officer in battle, or if their commanding officer should abandon his troops and flee by himself, behead them all. If a forward officer should abandon his troops and flee, any officer to the rear who is able to kill him and reassemble his troops should be rewarded. Anyone [among such troops] who has not achieved merit within the army must serve three years at the border.17'
"If the Three Armies engage in a major battle and the Grand General dies, all of the subordinate officers commanding units of more than five hundred men who were not able to fight to the death with the enemy should be beheaded. All the troops near to the commanding general, on the left and right in [protective] formation, should be beheaded. As for the remaining officers and men in the army, those who have military merit should be reduced one grade. Those who do not have military merit should be rescripted to three years' border duty.
"If the squad of five loses a man in battle, or if a squad member dies in battle but they do not retrieve his corpse, then take away all the merit of all his squad members. If they retrieve his corpse, then their crimes should all be pardoned.
"The army's advantage and disadvantage lie with name and substance [cohering throughout] the state. Today if a person's name appears as holding a particular [military] office but in reality he is at home, then the office has not gained the substance [of his presence], and the household has not gained the [registration of] his name. When troops are assembled to compose an army, it will have an empty name without substance. Outside the state it will be inadequate to repel enemies, while within the borders it will be inadequate to defend the state. This is the way in which the army becomes insufficient, in which the general has his awesomeness taken away.
"I believe that when soldiers abandon their units and return home, the other members of their squad in the same barracks and their officers should be punished for taking their rations for their own consumption, [the deserters'] names being shown as the army's substance. Thus a person is nominally with the army, but in reality double the ration is expended.76 The resources of the state are then empty, and the harvests of the people are naturally exhausted. How can the disaster of defeat be avoided?
"Today if they are stopped from returning home by the laws, this prevents the loss of an army and is the first military victory. When the squads of five and ten are mutually bound to the point that in battle the troops and officers will aid each other, this is the second military victory. If the general is able to establish his awesomeness, the soldiers to master and follow their instructions, while the commands and orders are clear and trusted, and attacking and defending are both properly executed, this is the third military victory.
"I have heard that in antiquity those who excelled in employing the army could [bear to] kill"' half of their officers and soldiers. The next could kill thirty percent and the lowest ten percent. The awesomeness of one who could sacrifice half of his troops affected all within the Four Seas. The strength of one who could sacrifice thirty percent could be applied to the feudal lords. The orders of one who could sacrifice ten percent would be implemented among his officers and troops. Thus I say that a mass of a hundred ten thousands that does not follow orders is not as good as ten thousand men who fight. Ten thousand men who fight are not as good as one hundred men who are truly aroused.
"When rewards are like the sun and moon, credibility is like the four seasons, orders are like the fu and yueh axes, and regulations are as [sharp as the famous sword] Kan-chiang, I have never heard of officers and troops not following orders!"
Translator's Introduction, 281
I Superior Strategy 292
II Middle Strategy 300
III Inferior Strategy 303
Origin of the Three Strategies
Popular Chinese tradition has historically attributed three military writings-the Six Secret Teachings, the Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung, and the esoteric Yin Fu (Hidden Symbols)-to the famous general, strategist, and political thinker Chiang Shang, best known as the T'ai Kung. As with most ancient Chinese works there are numerous problems with the text of the Three Strategies and the usual questions about its authenticity. However, even if the book were a "valueless forgery"-as claimed by the numerous Confucians who vehemently denounced its purported brutality-it would still demand serious study because of its antiquity, complex content, and manifest influence on subsequent military thinkers in China and eventually in Japan.' In its present form the language, subject matter, and presentation suggest it dates from near the end of the first century B.c.,2 although four other views (which are summarized below) propose rather different interpretations.
The Three Strategies attained historical prominence through Chang Liang's critical accomplishments in establishing the power and consolidating the authority of the Han dynasty during the turmoil and violent insurrections that overthrew the repressive, short-lived Ch'in dynasty. The story of its sudden appearance typifies semilegendary Chinese historical accounts, although circumstances can be construed to suggest a possible line of transmission extending back through the obscurity of time to the T'ai Kung himself. According to this tradition, the Three Strategies records the aging Sage's pronouncements after being enfeoffed as king of Chi'i-a state on the periphery of Chou culture-following the conquest of the Shang dynasty. Subsequently, the individual spontaneous statements-recorded in disjointed fashion-we
re collected, edited, and systematized. This task was probably performed by Ch'i's official court historian, with the work thereafter being secretly preserved by successive generations because of its great military value. It is assumed that because the T'ai Kung had already composed the Six Secret Teachings, his comments when peace had been attained throughout the realm would mainly expand and supplement the earlier treatise. This would account for the more extemporaneous character of the material and for the absence of many focal military topics, such as battlefield command and tactics.
The book then surfaced when transmitted by a nondescript old fellow to Chang Liang a decade before he became famous and powerful. The Shih chi records the incident:3
Once when Chang Liang was leisurely strolling across the Hsia-p'ei Bridge, he encountered an old man wearing the poor garb of a retired gentleman. When the old fellow reached the place where Chang was standing, he deliberately lost his shoe over the side of the bridge. Looking at Chang he commanded: "Young fellow, go down and fetch my shoe." Chang Liang was startled by this and wanted to beat him soundly, but because of the man's age he repressed his impulse.
Chang went down below the bridge and got the shoe. Upon returning the old man ordered: "Put it on my foot." As Chang had already gone and retrieved the shoe, he formally knelt down and put it on. Once he was wearing the shoe the old man smiled and departed. Chang Liang was quite surprised and continued staring at him. After the old man had gone about a few hundred yards, he returned and said: "Son, you can be taught. Five days from now, at dawn, meet me here." Chang Liang felt this was strange, but he knelt and assented.
Five days later, at dawn, Chang went to the bridge. However, the old fellow was already there, and he upbraided him: "When you make an appointment with an old man, how can you arrive after him?" He then departed, saying: "In five days we will meet even earlier." Five days later, when the cock first crowed, Chang Liang went there. However, the old fellow was first again, and once more he was angry. "How can you come after me?" As he departed he yelled: "In five more days come again, even earlier!"
The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China Page 34