On the day that you take up your command,
政舉 does not mean “when war is declared,” as Capt. Calthrop says,
nor yet exactly, as Ts‘ao Kung paraphrases it, 謀定 “when your
plans are fixed,” when you have mapped out your campaign. The
phrase is not given in the _P‘ei Wên Yün Fu_. There being no
causal connection discoverable between this and the preceding
sentence, 是故 must perforce be left untranslated.
block the frontier passes,
夷 is explained by Mei Yao-ch‘ên as 滅塞.
destroy the official tallies,
The _locus classicus_ for these tallies is _Chou Li_, XIV. fol. 40
(Imperial edition): 門關用符節貨賄用璽節道路用旌節. The generic term
thus appears to be 節, 符 being the special kind used at city-gates
and on the frontier. They were tablets of bamboo or wood, one half
of which was issued as a permit or passport by the official in
charge of a gate (司門 or 司關. Cf. the 封人 “border-warden” of _Lun
Yü_ III. 24, who may have had similar duties.) When this half was
returned to him, within a fixed period, he was authorised to open
the gate and let the traveller through.
and stop the passage of all emissaries.
Either to or from the enemy’s country.