Sun Zi – The Art of War

Chinese strategy explained : know yourself and the ennemy, use deception, spies, and "win with ease". Tr. Giles (en, annotated) and Amiot (fr).

Introduction
I. Laying Plans
II. Waging War
III. Attack by Stratagem
IV. Tactical Dispositions

V. Energy
VI. Weak Points and Strong
VII. Maneuvering
VIII. Variation in Tactics
IX. The Army On The March

X. Terrain
XI. The Nine Situations
XII. The Attack By Fire
XIII. The Use of Spies

The Army On The March

The contents of this interesting chapter are better indicated in ss. 1 than by this heading.

Sunzi IX. 9.

Country in which there are precipitous cliffs with torrents running between, deep natural hollows,1 confined places,2 tangled thickets,3 quagmires4 and crevasses,5 should be left with all possible speed and not approached.

1. The latter defined as "places enclosed on every side by steep banks, with pools of water at the bottom.

2. Defined as "natural pens or prisons" or "places surrounded by precipices on three sides–easy to get into, but hard to get out of."

3. Defined as "places covered with such dense undergrowth that spears cannot be used."

4. Defined as "low-lying places, so heavy with mud as to be impassable for chariots and horsemen."

5. Defined by Mei Yao-ch`en as "a narrow difficult way between beetling cliffs." Tu Mu's note is "ground covered with trees and rocks, and intersected by numerous ravines and pitfalls." This is very vague, but Chia Lin explains it clearly enough as a defile or narrow pass, and Chang Yu takes much the same view. On the whole, the weight of the commentators certainly inclines to the rendering "defile." But the ordinary meaning of the Chinese in one place is "a crack or fissure" and the fact that the meaning of the Chinese elsewhere in the sentence indicates something in the nature of a defile, make me think that Sun Tzu is here speaking of crevasses.

Giles IX.15.

Pour ce qui est des défilés et des lieux entrecoupés par des précipices et par des rochers, des lieux marécageux et glissants, des lieux étroits et couverts, lorsque la nécessité ou le hasard vous y aura conduit, tirez-vous-en le plus tôt qu'il vous sera possible, éloignez-vous-en le plus tôt que vous pourrez.

Amiot

Sun Zi IX. 9.