When you leave your own country behind, and take your army across
neighbouring territory,
Chang Yü’s paraphrase is 而用師者.
you find yourself on critical ground.
This “ground” is cursorily mentioned in VIII. § 2, but it does not
figure among the Nine 地 of this chapter or the Six 地形 in chap.
X. One’s first impulse would be to translate it “distant ground”
(絶域 is commonly used in the sense of “distant lands”), but this,
if we can trust the commentators, is precisely what is not meant
here. Mei Yao-ch‘ên says it is 進不及輕退不及散在二地之間也 “a position
not far enough advanced to be called ‘facile,’ and not near enough
to home to be called ‘dispersive,’ but something between the two.”
That, of course, does not explain the name 絶, which seems to imply
that the general has severed his communications and temporarily
cut himself off from his base. Thus, Wang Hsi says: “It is ground
separated from home by an interjacent state, whose territory we
have had to cross in order to reach it. Hence it is incumbent
on us to settle our business there quickly.” He adds that this
position is of rare occurrence, which is the reason why it is not
included among the 九地. Capt. Calthrop gives but a poor rendering
of this sentence: “To leave home and cross the borders is to be
free from interference.”