Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle, we may
concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight.
There is nothing about “defeating” anybody in this sentence, as
Capt. Calthrop translates. What Sun Tzŭ evidently has in mind is
that nice calculation of distances and that masterly employment of
strategy which enable a general to divide his army for the purpose
of a long and rapid march, and afterwards to effect a junction at
precisely the right spot and the right hour in order to confront
the enemy in overwhelming strength. Among many such successful
junctions which military history records, one of the most dramatic
and decisive was the appearance of Blücher just at the critical
moment on the field of Waterloo.
20. 不知戰地不知戰日則左不能救右右不能救左前不能救後後不能救前而況遠者
數十里近者數里乎
But if neither time nor place be known, then the left wing will be
impotent to succour the right, the right equally impotent to succour
the left, the van unable to relieve the rear, or the rear to support
the van. How much more so if the furthest portions of the army are
anything under a hundred _li_ apart, and even the nearest are
separated by several _li_!
The Chinese of this last sentence is a little lacking in
precision, but the mental picture we are required to draw is
probably that of an army advancing towards a given rendez-vous in
separate columns, each of which has orders to be there on a fixed
date. If the general allows the various detachments to proceed at
haphazard, without precise instructions as to the time and place
of meeting, the enemy will be able to annihilate the army in
detail. Chang Yü’s note may be worth quoting here: “If we do not
know the place where our opponents mean to concentrate or the
day on which they will join battle, our unity will be forfeited
through our preparations for defence, and the positions we hold
will be insecure. Suddenly happening upon a powerful foe, we
shall be brought to battle in a flurried condition, and no
mutual support will be possible between wings, vanguard or rear,
especially if there is any great distance between the foremost
and hindmost divisions of the army.”