- 非仁義不能使間
- 非微妙不能得間之實
- 微哉微哉無所不用間也
- 間事未發而先聞者間與所告者皆死
16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.
Chang Yü says that 仁 means “not grudging them honours and pay;” 義, “showing no distrust of their honesty.” “When you have attracted them by substantial offers, you must treat them with absolute sincerity; then they will work for you with all their might.”
17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
Mei Yao-ch‘ên says: “Be on your guard against the possibility of spies going over to the service of the enemy.” The T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan read 密 for 妙.
18. Be subtle! be subtle!
Cf. VI. §9: 微乎微乎. Capt. Calthrop translates: “Wonderful indeed is the power of spies.”
and use your spies for every kind of business.
19. If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.
The Chinese here is so concise and elliptical that some expansion is necessary for the proper understanding of it. 間事 denotes important information about the enemy obtained from a surviving spy. The subject of 未發, however, is not this information itself, but the secret stratagem built up on the strength of it. 聞者 means “is heard” — by anybody else. Thus, word for word, we get: “If spy matters are heard before [our plans] are carried out,” etc. Capt. Calthrop, in translating 間與所告者 “the spy who told the matter, and the man who repeated the same,” may appeal to the authority of the commentators; but he surely misses the main point of Sun Tzŭ's injunction. For, whereas you kill the spy himself 惡其泄 “as a punishment for letting out the secret,” the object of killing the other man is only, as Ch‘ên Hao puts it, 以滅口 “to stop his mouth” and prevent the
