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Six Secret Teachings, Dragon Teaching — The Five Notes六韜 五音

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 · 301 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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.

1Knowing the enemy by the five notes of the pitch pipes

武王問太公曰：「律音之聲，可以知三軍之消息，勝負之決乎？」太公曰：「深哉！王之問也。夫律管十二，其要有五音：宮、商、角、徵、羽，此其正聲也，萬代不易。五行之神，道之常也。可以知敵，金、木、水、火、土，各以其勝攻之。古者三皇之世，虛無之情，以制剛彊。無有文字，皆由五行。五行之道，天地自然。六甲之分，微妙之神。其法以天清淨，無陰雲風雨，夜半遣輕騎，往至敵人之壘，去九百步外，遍持律管當耳，大呼驚之。有聲應管，其來甚微。角聲應管，當以白虎；徵聲應管，當以玄武；商聲應管，當以朱雀；羽聲應管，當以勾陳。五管聲盡不應者，宮也，當以青龍。此五行之符，佐勝之徵，成敗之機。」武王曰：「善哉！」太公曰：「微妙之音，皆有外候。」武王曰：「何以知之？」太公曰：「敵人驚動則聽之。聞枹鼓之音者，角也；見火光者，徵也；聞金鐵矛戟之音者，商也；聞人嘯呼之音者，羽也；寂寞無聞者，宮也。此五者，聲色之符也。」

King Wu asked Taigong, "Can the sound of the pitch pipes tell the tidings of the three armies and the settling of victory and defeat?" Taigong said, "Deep is my lord's question. The pitch pipes are twelve, and their essential lies in the five notes — gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu. These are the correct sounds, and they are not changed through ten thousand ages. They are the spirit of the five phases and the constancy of the Way. By them the enemy can be known, for metal, wood, water, fire, and earth each strike with that which they overcome. In the age of the Three Sovereigns of old, the hard and the strong were held down by the feeling of emptiness and nothingness. There were no written characters, and all came from the five phases. The way of the five phases is the nature of Heaven and Earth, and the division of the six jia is a subtle spirit. The method is this. When the sky is clear, with no dark cloud and no wind or rain, at midnight send out light horsemen to reach the enemy's rampart, and there, nine hundred paces off, let them hold the pitch pipes all around to the ear and shout aloud to startle them. There is a sound that answers the pipe, and its coming is very faint. If the note jue answers the pipe, meet them with the White Tiger. If the note zhi answers the pipe, meet them with the Dark Warrior. If the note shang answers the pipe, meet them with the Vermilion Bird. If the note yu answers the pipe, meet them with the Hooked Array (Gouchen). When all five pipes are sounded to the end and nothing answers, it is gong, and they are met with the Azure Dragon. This is the tally of the five phases, the proof that helps to victory, and the trigger of success and failure." King Wu said, "Good." Taigong said, "The subtle sounds all have outward signs." King Wu said, "How are they known?" Taigong said, "When the enemy is startled into movement, listen to them. If the sound of drumstick and drum is heard, it is jue. If firelight is seen, it is zhi. If the sound of metal and iron, of spear and halberd, is heard, it is shang. If the sound of men whistling and calling out is heard, it is yu. If all is still and nothing is heard, it is gong. These five are the tally of sound and color."

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