Six Secret Teachings, Dragon Teaching — Secret Tallies六韜 陰符
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 · 181 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 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.
1Eight secret tallies that carry the message in their length
King Wu asked Taigong, "When I lead the army deep into the land of the feudal lords and something urgent comes suddenly upon the three armies, whether to our profit or to our harm, I wish to reach the far from the near and to answer from within to what is without, and so to supply the needs of the three armies. How is this done?" Taigong said, "Between the ruler and the general there are secret tallies (陰符), eight ranks of them in all. The tally for a great victory over the enemy is one foot long. The tally for breaking an army and taking its general is nine inches. The tally for the surrender of a walled city and the gaining of a town is eight inches. The tally for driving back the enemy and sending word from far off is seven inches. The tally for warning the host and holding firm is six inches. The tally for asking for grain and more troops is five inches. The tally for an army beaten and a general lost is four inches. The tally for an advantage lost and soldiers lost is three inches. If an envoy who carries a tally delays on the road, or if the business of a tally leaks out, he and the man who told of it are all put to death. The eight tallies are what the ruler and the general know in secret. They are the art of passing words in hiding, so that what those within and those without know between them does not leak out. Though the enemy be sagely and wise, he cannot make them out." King Wu said, "Good."