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Six Secret Teachings, Tiger Teaching — Facing the Border六韜 臨境

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 · 231 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.

1How to stand against the enemy across the border

武王問太公曰：「吾與敵人臨境相拒，彼可以來，我可以往，陣皆堅固，莫敢先舉。我欲往而襲之，彼亦可以來。為之奈何？」太公曰：「分兵三處。令我前軍，深溝增壘而無出，列旌旂，擊鼙鼓，完為守備。令我後軍，多積糧食，無使敵人知我意。發我銳士，潛襲其中，擊其不意，攻其無備。敵人不知我情，則止不來矣。」武王曰：「敵人知我之情，通我之機，動則得我事。其銳士伏於深草，要我隘路，擊我便處，為之奈何？」太公曰：「令我前軍，日出挑戰，以勞其意。令我老弱，曳柴揚塵，鼓呼而往來，或出其左，或出其右，去敵無過百步，其將必勞，其卒必駭。如此，則敵人不敢來。吾往者不止，或襲其內，或擊其外，三軍疾戰，敵人必敗。」

King Wu asked Taigong, "We stand against the enemy across the border. They can come and we can go, and both formations are firm, so that neither side dares move first. I wish to go and raid them, but they too can come. What should be done?" Taigong said, "Divide the troops into three places. Have our front army deepen its ditches and raise its ramparts and not go out, set out the banners and beat the drums, and keep its defense whole. Have our rear army pile up much grain, and let the enemy not know our mind. Send out our keen troops to raid the middle of them in secret, striking where they do not look for it and attacking where they are not ready. When the enemy does not know our state, they will halt and not come." King Wu said, "The enemy knows our state and sees through our workings, so that when we move they learn our business, and they set their keen troops in ambush in the deep grass, hold our narrow road, and strike us where it suits them. What should be done?" Taigong said, "Have our front army go out day after day and offer battle, to wear out their purpose. Have our old and weak drag brushwood to raise the dust, and beat drums and shout and go back and forth, coming out now on the enemy's left and now on their right, never farther than a hundred paces from them. Then their general will surely be worn out and their soldiers surely startled. In this way the enemy will not dare to come. We do not stop going out, and now we raid their inside and now we strike their outside; and when the three armies fight swiftly, the enemy is sure to be beaten."

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