- 將軍之事靜以幽正以治
- 能愚士卒之耳目使之無知
Tu Mu says: 喩易也 “The simile has reference to the ease with which he does it.” 不得已 means that he makes it impossible for his troops to do otherwise than obey. Chang Yü quotes a jingle, to be found in Wu Tzŭ, ch. 4: 將之所揮、莫不從移、將之所指、莫不前死.
35. It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order.
靜 seems to combine the meanings “noiseless” and “imperturbable,” both of which attributes would of course conduce to secrecy. Tu Mu explains 幽 as 幽深難測 “deep and inscrutable,” and 正 as 平正無偏 “fair and unbiassed.” Mei Yao-ch‘ên alone among the commentators takes 治 in the sense of 自治 “self-controlled.” 幽 and 治 are causally connected with 靜 and 正 respectively. This is not brought out at all in Capt. Calthrop’s rendering: “The general should be calm, inscrutable, just and prudent.” The last adjective, moreover, can in no sense be said to represent 治.
36. He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and appearances,
Literally, “to deceive their eyes and ears”— 愚 being here used as a verb in the sense of 誤.
and thus keep them in total ignorance.
Ts‘ao Kung gives us one of his excellent apophthegms: 民可與樂成不可與慮始 “The troops must not be allowed to share your schemes in the beginning; they may only rejoice with you over their happy outcome.” “To mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy,” is one of the first principles in war, as has been frequently pointed out. But how about the other process — the mystification of one’s own men? Those who may think that Sun Tzŭ is over-emphatic on this point would do well to read Col. Henderson’s remarks on Stonewall Jackson’s Valley campaign: “The infinite pains,” he says, “with which Jackson sought to conceal, even from his most trusted staff officers, his movements, his intentions, and his thoughts, a commander less thorough would have pronounced useless” — etc. etc.[1]In the year 88 A.D., as we read in ch. 47
- ↑ "Stonewall Jackson," vol. I, p. 421.
