If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority
felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and
incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder:
Capt. Calthrop has got these three clauses quite wrong. The last
he translates: “overindulgence may produce disorder.”
then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are
useless for any practical purpose.
Cf. IX. § 42. We read in the 陰符經, pt. 2: 害生于思 “Injury comes
out of kindness.” Li Ching once said that if you could make your
soldiers afraid of you, they would not be afraid of the enemy. Tu
Mu recalls an instance of stern military discipline which occurred
in 219 A.D., when 呂蒙 Lü Mêng was occupying the town of 江陵
Chiang-ling. He had given stringent orders to his army not to
molest the inhabitants nor take anything from them by force.
Nevertheless, a certain officer serving under his banner, who
happened to be a fellow-townsman, ventured to appropriate a bamboo
hat (笠) belonging to one of the people, in order to wear it over
his regulation helmet as a protection against the rain. Lü Mêng
considered that the fact of his being also a native of 汝南 Ju-nan
should not be allowed to palliate a clear breach of discipline,
and accordingly he ordered his summary execution, the tears
rolling down his face, however, as he did so. This act of severity
filled the army with wholesome awe, and from that time forth even
articles dropped in the highway were not picked up. [_San Kuo
Chih_, ch. 54, f. 13 _r_^o. & _v_^o.].