id you know what was going to happen?' they asked. P`ei
Hsing-chien replied: 'From this time forward be content to obey
orders without asking unnecessary questions.' From this it may
be seen," Chang Yu continues, "that high and sunny places are
advantageous not only for fighting, but also because they are
immune from disastrous floods."]

11. If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not
follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.

[The turning point of Li Shih-min's campaign in 621 A.D.
against the two rebels, Tou Chien-te, King of Hsia, and Wang
Shih-ch`ung, Prince of Cheng, was his seizure of the heights of
Wu-lao, in spike of which Tou Chien-te persisted in his attempt
to relieve his ally in Lo-yang, was defeated and taken prisoner.
See CHIU T`ANG, ch. 2, fol. 5 verso, and also ch. 54.]

12. If you are situated at a great distance from the enemy,
and the strength of the two armies is equal, it is not easy to
provoke a battle,

[The point is that we must not think of undertaking a long
and wearisome march, at the end of which, as Tu Yu says, "we
should be exhausted and our adversary fresh and keen."]

and fighting will be to your disadvantage.

13. These six are the principles connected with Earth.

[Or perhaps, "the principles relating to ground." See,
however, I. ss. 8.]

The general who has attained a responsible post must be careful
to study them.
14. Now an army is exposed to six several calamities, not
arising from natural causes, but from faults for which the
general is responsible. These are: (1) Flight; (2)
insubordination; (3) collapse; (4) ruin; (5) disorganization; (6)
rout.
15. Other conditions being equal, if one force is hurled
against another ten times its size, the result will be the FLIGHT
of the former.
16. When the common soldiers are too strong and their
officers too weak, the result is INSUBORDINATION.

[Tu Mu cites the unhappy case of T`ien Pu [HSIN T`ANG SHU,
ch. 148], who was sent to Wei in 821 A.D. with orders to lead an
army against Wang T`ing-ts`ou. But the whole time he was in
command, his soldiers treated him with the utmost contempt, and
openly flouted his authority by riding about the camp on donkeys,
several thousands at a time. T`ien Pu was powerless to put a
stop to this conduct, and when, after some months had passed, he
made an attempt to engage the enemy, his troops t