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Six Secret Teachings, Martial Teaching — The Way of Arms六韜 兵道

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 · 239 Chinese characters · reading time 1.0 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.

1The way of arms is nothing more than oneness

武王問太公曰：「兵道何如？」太公曰：「凡兵之道，莫過於一。一者能獨往獨來。黃帝曰：『一者，階於道，幾於神。』用之在於機，顯之在於勢，成之在於君。故聖王號兵為凶器，不得已而用之。今商王知存而不知亡，知樂而不知殃。夫存者非存，在於慮亡。樂者非樂，在於慮殃。今王已慮其源，豈憂其流乎。」武王曰：「兩軍相遇，彼不可來，此不可往，各設固備，未敢先發。我欲襲之，不得其利，為之奈何？」太公曰：「外亂而內整，示饑而實飽，內精而外鈍，一合一離，一聚一散，陰其謀，密其機，高其壘，伏其銳，士寂若無聲，敵不知我所備。欲其西，襲其東。」武王曰：「敵知我情，通我謀，為之奈何？」太公曰：「兵勝之術，密察敵人之機而速乘其利，復疾擊其不意。」

King Wu asked Taigong, "What is the way of arms?" Taigong said, "In the way of arms nothing is better than oneness. What is one can go alone and come alone. The Yellow Emperor said, 'The one is the stair that climbs to the Way, and it comes near to the spirits.' The using of it lies in the moment, the showing of it lies in the disposition, the completing of it lies in the ruler. So the sage kings called arms an instrument of ill omen and used them only when there was no other way. The king of Shang now knows lasting but not perishing, knows pleasure but not disaster. Lasting is not in lasting; it lies in reckoning on perishing. Pleasure is not in pleasure; it lies in reckoning on disaster. My lord has already reckoned with the source, so why worry about the stream?" King Wu said, "Two armies meet. They cannot come and we cannot go, each has set firm defenses, and neither dares move first. I wish to fall upon them but cannot get my advantage. What should be done?" Taigong said, "Be disordered without and ordered within, show hunger while in truth well fed, be keen within and dull without. Join and part, gather and scatter. Hide your plans and keep your moment secret, raise your ramparts and conceal your picked men, so that the soldiers are quiet as if there were no sound in them, and the enemy will not know what you have made ready. If you would go west, fall upon their east." King Wu said, "If the enemy knows our circumstances and gets through to our plans, what should be done?" Taigong said, "The art by which arms win is to examine the enemy's moment in secret and ride his advantage quickly, and then again strike swiftly where he does not expect it."

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