The natural formation of the country is the soldier’s best ally;
Chia Lin’s text has the reading 易 for 助. Ch‘ên Hao says: 天時不如
地利 “The advantages of weather and season are not equal to those
connected with ground.”
but a power of estimating the adversary,
The insertion of a “but” is necessary to show the connection of
thought here. A general should always utilise, but never rely
wholly on natural advantages of terrain.
of controlling the forces of victory,
制勝 is one of those condensed expressions which mean so much in
Chinese, and so little in an English translation. What it seems to
imply is complete mastery of the situation from the beginning.
and of shrewdly calculating difficulties, dangers and distances,
The _T‘ung Tien_ and _Yü Lan_ read 計極險易利害遠近. I am decidedly
puzzled by Capt. Calthrop’s translation: “an eye for steepness,
_command_ and distances.” Where did he find the word which I have
put in italics?
constitutes the test of a great general.
A somewhat free translation of 道. As Chang Yü remarks, these are
兵之本 “the essentials of soldiering,” ground being only a helpful
accessory.