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Six Secret Teachings, Leopard Teaching — Crow and Cloud Troops in the Mountains六韜 烏雲山兵

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 · 226 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.

1The crow and cloud formation in the mountains — the mountain fortress

武王問太公曰：「引兵深入諸侯之地，遇高山盤石，其上亭亭，無有草木，四面受敵。吾三軍恐懼，士卒迷惑。吾欲以守則固，以戰則勝。為之奈何？」太公曰：「凡三軍處山之高，則為敵所栖；處山之下，則為敵所囚。既以被山而處，必為烏雲之陣。烏雲之陣，陰陽皆備。或屯其陰，或屯其陽。處山之陽，備山之陰；處山之陰，備山之陽；處山之左，備山之右；處山之右，備山之左。其山，敵所能陵者，兵備其表；衢道通谷，絕以武車；高置旌旂，謹敕三軍，無使敵人知吾之情，是謂山城。行列已定，士卒已陣，法令已行，奇正已設，各置衝陣於山之表，便兵所處，乃分車騎為烏雲之陣。三軍疾戰，敵人雖眾，其將可擒。」

King Wu asked Taigong, "I lead the army deep into the land of the feudal lords and come upon a high mountain and broad flat rock. Its top stands bare and high, with no grass or trees, and we are open to the enemy on all four sides. Our three armies are afraid and the officers and men bewildered. I wish that when we hold we are firm, and when we fight we win. What is to be done?" Taigong said, "When the three armies take the high part of a mountain, they become birds penned up by the enemy; when they take the low part, they become the enemy's prisoners. Once you have set yourself with the mountain at your back, you must make the crow and cloud formation (烏雲). The crow and cloud formation makes ready both the shady side and the sunny side, camping now in the shade and now in the sun. On the sunny side of the mountain, make ready the shady side; on the shady side, make ready the sunny side; on the left of the mountain, make ready the right; on the right of the mountain, make ready the left. Where the mountain can be climbed by the enemy, make its outer face ready with troops. Cut off the highways and the open valleys with the martial chariots. Set the flags high and warn the three armies carefully, so that the enemy does not learn how we stand. This is called a mountain fortress (山城). When the ranks are set and the officers and men drawn up in line, when the laws and orders are in force and the unorthodox and the orthodox are both laid out, put an assault formation on each outer face of the mountain, where it is convenient for the troops to be, and then divide the chariots and horsemen into the crow and cloud formation. If the three armies fight swiftly, then though the enemy be many, his general can be seized."

Interlinear notes 1

既以被山而處

Some read beishan (被山) as "with the mountain at one's back." Because what follows speaks of the mountain's sunny and shady sides and its left and right, it is read here as leaning on the mountain. — translator

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