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Six Secret Teachings, Civil Teaching — Passing It On Clearly六韜 明傳

Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi 武經七書 · Ascribed to Jiang Taigong · ascribed to Huang Shigong · Wei Liao · Wu Qi · Sima Rangju · Li Jing · Warring States to Tang (4th century BC to 7th century AD) · 1 passages · 130 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 min

Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi Six Secret Teachings The six that remain when the Art of War of Sunzi is taken out of the seven military books the Song set as the texts for examining military officers. The Six Secret Teachings is sixty chapters of questions and answers in which King Wen and King Wu ask Taigong Wang, running from the governing of a state to chariots, cavalry, battle in the open and the crossing of water; the Three Strategies is three short books said to have been given to Zhang Liang by Huang Shigong; the Wei Liaozi is twenty-four chapters setting down in detail the military orders and the squads of five and ten around the time of Qin; the Wuzi is six chapters of Wu Qi's answers to Marquis Wu of Wei; the Methods of the Sima is five chapters handing down the military rites of before the Spring and Autumn period; and Questions and Replies with Li Weigong is three books in which Taizong of Tang and Li Jing go back and forth over the unorthodox and the orthodox, the empty and the full, the frontier peoples and the Han, and attack and defense. "Arms are an instrument of ill omen," "bring the enemy to you and do not be brought to him," and "a thousand chapters and ten thousand phrases do not go beyond that one phrase" all come from here. The remaining six streams of the military school, read after the Art of War, are gathered in one place.

1King Wen, lying ill, asks for the Way he is to pass to his descendants

文王寢疾,召太公望,太子發在側。曰:「嗚呼!天將棄予。周之社稷,將以屬汝。今予欲師至道之言,以明傳之子孫。」太公曰:「王何所問?」文王曰:「先聖之道,其所止,其所起,可得聞乎?」太公曰:「見善而怠,時至而疑,知非而處,此三者,道之所止也。柔而靜,恭而敬,強而弱,忍而剛,此四者,道之所起也。故義勝欲則昌,欲勝義則亡;敬勝怠則吉,怠勝敬則滅。」

King Wen lay ill and summoned Taigong Wang, and the crown prince Fa was at his side. He said, "Alas, Heaven is about to cast me off. The altars of Zhou I shall now put into your hands. I wish to take the words of the utmost Way as my teacher, and so pass them on clearly to my sons and grandsons." Taigong said, "What would my lord ask?" King Wen said, "The Way of the former sages — where it stops and where it rises — may I hear of it?" Taigong said, "To see the good and be slack, to have the moment come and doubt, to know a thing is wrong and yet remain in it — these three are where the Way stops. To be gentle and still, to be humble and reverent, to be strong and yet yielding, to bear much and yet be firm — these four are where the Way rises. So when righteousness overcomes desire, there is flourishing, and when desire overcomes righteousness, there is ruin. When reverence overcomes slackness, there is good fortune, and when slackness overcomes reverence, there is destruction."