If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us
even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the
ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in
his way.
In order to preserve the parallelism with § 11, I should prefer to
follow the _T‘u Shu_ text, which inserts 雖 before 畫地. This
extremely concise expression is intelligibly paraphrased by Chia
Lin: 雖未修壘壍 “even though we have constructed neither wall nor
ditch.” The real crux of the passage lies in 乖其所之也. 之 of
course = 至. Ts‘ao Kung defines 乖 by the word 戾, which is perhaps
a case of _obscurum per obscurius_. Li Ch‘üan, however, says:
設奇異而疑之 “we puzzle him by strange and unusual dispositions;”
and Tu Mu finally clinches the meaning by three illustrative
anecdotes—one of 諸葛亮 Chu-ko Liang, who when occupying 陽平
Yang-p‘ing and about to be attacked by 司馬懿 Ssŭ-ma I, suddenly
struck his colours, stopped the beating of the drums, and flung
open the city gates, showing only a few men engaged in sweeping
and sprinkling the ground. This unexpected proceeding had the
intended effect; for Ssŭ-ma I, suspecting an ambush, actually drew
off his army and retreated. What Sun Tzŭ is advocating here,
therefore, is nothing more nor less than the timely use of
“bluff.” Capt. Calthrop translates: “and prevent the enemy from
attacking by keeping him in suspense,” which shows that he has not
fully grasped the meaning of 乖.