兵令上

Weapons are instruments of ill omen; conflict is contrary to virtue. Every undertaking must have its foundation, and therefore when true kings campaign against tyranny and disorder, their foundation is benevolence and righteousness. In the Warring States, however, states seek to establish their authority and resist their enemies by plotting against each other -- and so warfare cannot be abolished.

In warfare, the military is the trunk and the civil is the seed. The military is the exterior; the civil is the interior. He who can carefully discern these two will know victory and defeat. The civil sphere is the means to assess advantage and harm, to distinguish safety from danger. The military sphere is the means to confront powerful enemies and to exert force in attack and defense.

Unity of purpose brings victory; dispersal brings defeat. Formations that are dense are solid; spearheads that are open can penetrate. When soldiers fear their general more than the enemy, victory follows. When soldiers fear the enemy more than their general, defeat follows.

The way to predict victory or defeat is to weigh the general against the enemy. The enemy and the general are like the two pans of a scale.

Calm and order produce good governance; violence and haste produce chaos. Deploying troops and forming up have their standing orders. Spacing of ranks and files has its standard regulations. The sequence of front and rear has its proper arrangement.

Standing orders are not for use during pursuit of a routed enemy or surprise attacks on towns. Disrupting the order of front and rear is a punishable failure. Anyone who throws the sequence into disorder is beheaded.

Standard formations all face the enemy. There are inward-facing formations and outward-facing formations; there are standing formations and sitting formations.

Inward-facing formations protect the center. Outward-facing formations guard against external threats. Standing formations are for movement. Sitting formations are for holding position. Standing and sitting formations alternate between advance and halt, with the general positioned in the center.

Sitting troops are armed with swords and axes. Standing troops are armed with halberds and crossbows. The general also remains in the center.

He who excels at resisting the enemy first engages with the orthodox force, then seizes the decisive point. This is the art of certain victory.

Deploy the executioner's axes in the formation. Adorn the ranks with flags and badges. Those with merit are always rewarded; those who violate orders always die. Survival and destruction, death and life -- all hang upon the tip of the drumstick. Even the finest soldiers in All-Under-Heaven cannot withstand such an army.

Before arrows are exchanged and before long blades clash: those who shout from the front are 'empty.' Those who shout from the rear are 'solid.' Those who do not shout are 'secret.' Empty, solid, and secret -- these are the fundamental dispositions of the army.