Chinese strategy explained : know yourself and the ennemy, use deception, spies, and "win with ease". Tr. Giles (en, annotated) and Amiot (fr).
Waging War
Ts`ao Kung has the note: "He who wishes to fight must first count the cost," which prepares us for the discovery that the subject of the chapter is not what we might expect from the title, but is primarily a consideration of ways and means.
Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.1
On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's substance to be drained away.2
When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions.
Giles II.10,11,12.
Ils n'ignorent point, et vous devez le savoir aussi, que rien n'épuise tant un royaume que les dépenses de cette nature ; car que l'armée soit aux frontières, ou qu'elle soit dans les pays éloignés, le peuple en souffre toujours ; toutes les choses nécessaires à la vie augmentent de prix, elles deviennent rares, et ceux même qui, dans les temps ordinaires, sont le plus à leur aise n'ont bientôt plus de quoi les acheter.
Amiot
The Art of War – Sun Zi II. 6. – Chinese on/off – Français/English
Alias Sun Tzu, Sun Wu, Sun Tse, Sunzi Bingfa, Souen Tseu, Souen Wou, 孫武.
The Book of Odes, The Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Three-characters book, The Book of Changes, The Way and its Power, 300 Tang Poems, The Art of War, Thirty-Six Strategies
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