Six Secret Teachings, Tiger Teaching — Swift Battle六韜 疾戰
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 · 115 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.
1An army surrounded wins by acting fast and loses by acting slowly
King Wu asked Taigong, "The enemy has surrounded us, cut off our front and rear, and blocked our grain road. What should be done?" Taigong said, "These are the hardest pressed troops under Heaven. Use them fast and you win; use them slowly and you lose. At such a time make the four-sided martial assault formation (四武衝陣), and with martial chariots and swift horsemen startle their army and throw it into disorder and strike quickly, and you may go where you please." King Wu said, "When the ground of the encirclement has already been left behind, and I wish to make a victory of it, what should be done?" Taigong said, "Let the left army go quickly to the left and the right army go quickly to the right, and let neither contend with the enemy for the road. Let the center army take the front and take the rear by turns, and though the enemy be many, their general can be put to flight."