Bestow rewards without regard to rule,
Wu Tzŭ (ch. 3) less wisely says: 進有重賞退有重刑 “Let advance be
richly rewarded and retreat be heavily punished.”
issue orders
懸, literally, “hang” or “post up.”
without regard to previous arrangements;
杜姦媮 “In order to prevent treachery,” says Wang Hsi. The general
meaning is made clear by Ts‘ao Kung’s quotation from the _Ssŭ-ma
Fa:_ 見敵作誓瞻功作賞 “Give instructions only on sighting the enemy;
give rewards only when you see deserving deeds.” 無政, however,
presents some difficulty. Ts‘ao Kung’s paraphrase, 軍法令不應預施懸也,
I take to mean: “The final instructions you give to your army
should not correspond with those that have been previously posted
up.” Chang Yü simplifies this into 政不預告 “your arrangements
should not be divulged beforehand.” And Chia Lin says: 不守常法常政
“there should be no fixity in your rules and arrangements.” Not
only is there danger in letting your plans be known, but war often
necessitates the entire reversal of them at the last moment.
and you will be able to handle a whole army
犯, according to Ts‘ao Kung, is here equal to 用. The exact meaning
is brought out more clearly in the next paragraph.
as though you had to do with but a single man.
Cf. supra, § 34.