When a warlike prince attacks a powerful state, his generalship shows
itself in preventing the concentration of the enemy’s forces. He
overawes his opponents,
Here and in the next sentence, the _Yü Lan_ inserts 家 after 敵.
and their allies are prevented from joining against him.
Mei Yao-ch‘ên constructs one of the chains of reasoning that are
so much affected by the Chinese: “In attacking a powerful state,
if you can divide her forces, you will have a superiority in
strength; if you have a superiority in strength, you will overawe
the enemy; if you overawe the enemy, the neighbouring states will
be frightened; and if the neighbouring states are frightened, the
enemy’s allies will be prevented from joining her.” The following
gives a stronger meaning to 威加: 若大國一敗則小國離而不聚矣 “If the
great state has once been defeated (before she has had time to
summon her allies), then the lesser states will hold aloof and
refrain from massing their forces.” Ch‘ên Hao and Chang Yü take
the sentence in quite another way. The former says: “Powerful
though a prince may be, if he attacks a large state, he will be
unable to raise enough troops, and must rely to some extent on
external aid; if he dispenses with this, and with overweening
confidence in his own strength, simply tries to intimidate the
enemy, he will surely be defeated.” Chang Yü puts his view thus:
“If we recklessly attack a large state, our own people will be
discontented and hang back. But if (as will then be the case) our
display of military force is inferior by half to that of the
enemy, the other chieftains will take fright and refuse to join
us.” According to this interpretation, 其 would refer, not to the
大國, but to the 霸王 himself.