If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is
ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret
was told.
The Chinese here is so concise and elliptical that some expansion
is necessary for the proper understanding of it. 間事 denotes
important information about the enemy obtained from a surviving
spy. The subject of 未發, however, is not this information itself,
but the secret stratagem built up on the strength of it. 聞者 means
“is heard”—by anybody else. Thus, word for word, we get: “If spy
matters are heard before [our plans] are carried out,” etc. Capt.
Calthrop, in translating 間與所告者 “the spy who told the matter,
and the man who repeated the same,” may appeal to the authority of
the commentators; but he surely misses the main point of Sun Tzŭ’s
injunction. For, whereas you kill the spy himself 惡其泄 “as a
punishment for letting out the secret,” the object of killing the
other man is only, as Ch‘ên Hao puts it, 以滅口 “to stop his mouth”
and prevent the news leaking any further. If it had already been
repeated to others, this object would not be gained. Either way,
Sun Tzŭ lays himself open to the charge of inhumanity, though Tu
Mu tries to defend him by saying that the man deserves to be put
to death, for the spy would certainly not have told the secret
unless the other had been at pains to worm it out of him. The
_T‘ung Tien_ and _Yü Lan_ have the reading ... 先聞其間者與, etc.,
which, while not affecting the sense, strikes me as being better
than that of the standard text. The _T‘u Shu_ has ... 聞與所告者,
which I suppose would mean: “the man who heard the secret and the
man who told it to him.”
20. 凡軍之所欲擊城之所欲攻人之所欲殺必先知其守將左右謁者門者舍人之姓名令吾間
必索知之
Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm a city, or to
assassinate an individual, it is always necessary to begin by finding
out the names of the attendants,
左右 is a comprehensive term for those who wait on others, servants
and retainers generally. Capt. Calthrop is hardly happy in
rendering it “right-hand men.”
the aides-de-camp,
謁者, literally “visitors,” is equivalent, as Tu Yu says, to
主告事者 “those whose duty it is to keep the general supplied with
information,” which naturally necessitates frequent interviews
with him. Chang Yü goes too far afield for an explanation in
saying that they are 典賓客之將 “the leaders of mercenary troops.”
the door-keepers and sentries
閽吏 and 守舍之人.
of the general in command.
守將, according to Chang Yü, is simply 守官任職之將 “a general on
active service.” Capt. Calthrop is wrong, I think, in making 守將
directly dependent on 姓名 (... “the names of the general in
charge,” etc.).
Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.
As the first step, no doubt, towards finding out if any of these
important functionaries can be won over by bribery. Capt. Calthrop
blunders badly with: “Then set the spies to watch them.”