《孙子兵法》说了什么？

English (for the teacher)

You may have heard this saying: “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle.” Many people think it comes from The Art of War. In fact, that's not what the book says.

The author of The Art of War was Sun Wu, whom people respectfully call “Sunzi”, Master Sun. He lived more than two thousand five hundred years ago, in the Spring and Autumn period; he was born in the state of Qi, later went south to the state of Wu, and helped King Helü of Wu fight his wars.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the king of Wu wanted to test him, so he had him drill one hundred and eighty women from the palace. Sun Wu split them into two companies and made the king's two favourite concubines their captains. He explained the orders several times, but as soon as the drum sounded, the women just burst out laughing. Sun Wu said, “If the orders aren't explained clearly, that's the general's fault.” He explained them a few more times and beat the drum again, and still they laughed. Sun Wu said, “The orders are clear now; if they still aren't carried out, that's the captains' fault.” And so he ordered the two captains to be taken out and executed. The king, watching from a high terrace, saw that his beloved concubines were about to be killed; he was horrified and hurriedly sent someone to plead for them. But Sun Wu replied that when a general is leading troops, there are orders from the king he need not obey. He chose two others to be captains. When the drum sounded again, every woman moved in perfect order, and not one dared to make a sound. The idiom “three orders, five instructions”, meaning to give orders again and again, is linked to this story.

Though it pained him, the king still made Sun Wu a general. The book on war he wrote has just thirteen chapters, only about six thousand characters, yet it is seen as one of the most important military works of ancient China. Its very first sentence says: “War is a great matter of the state, the ground of life and death, the road to survival or ruin; it must be examined.” That is: war decides whether people live or die and whether a country survives or falls, so it must be studied carefully.

The original of that famous line is in the chapter “Attack by Stratagem”: “Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will not be in danger.” “Dai” means danger. Sun Wu never said that knowing your enemy and yourself means you will win every time; what he said is that this way, even if you fight a hundred times, you will not fall into danger.

What's more interesting is that the words “win every battle” really are in the book, but what Sun Wu said is: “To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the best of the best; to subdue the enemy's army without fighting is the best of the best.” Winning every time you fight doesn't count as the best; making the enemy give in without a battle is the best of all.

In 1972, in Han dynasty tombs at Yinqueshan in Linyi, Shandong, archaeologists found a batch of bamboo slips, and on them was written The Art of War. Today the book has been translated into dozens of languages, and not only soldiers, but business people and sports coaches too love reading it.

So the next time someone tells you, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle,” you can tell them with a smile: Sun Wu wasn't that optimistic, but he was cleverer than that. Knowing yourself and your opponent only guarantees you won't fall into danger; a true master doesn't have to fight a single battle.