If the enemy is taking his ease, he can harass him;
This passage may be cited as evidence against Mei Yao-Ch‘ên’s
interpretation of I. § 23.
if well supplied with food, he can starve him out;
飢 is probably an older form than 饑, the reading of the original
text. Both are given in the 說文.
if quietly encamped, he can force him to move.
The subject to 能 is still 善戰者; but these clauses would read
better as direct admonitions, and in the next sentence we find Sun
Tzŭ dropping insensibly into the imperative.