Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and
Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams;
奇 is the universally accepted emendation for 兵, the reading of
the 北堂書鈔.
like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four
seasons, they pass away but to return once more.
Tu Yu and Chang Yü understand this of the permutations of 奇 and
正. But at present Sun Tzŭ is not speaking of 正 at all, unless,
indeed, we suppose with 鄭友賢 Chêng Yu-hsien that a clause
relating to it has fallen out of the text. Of course, as has
already been pointed out, the two are so inextricably interwoven
in all military operations, that they cannot really be considered
apart. Here we simply have an expression, in figurative language,
of the almost infinite resource of a great leader.