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) · 2 passages · 150 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min
Wujing Qishu (The Seven Military Classics) — the six besides the Sunzi Weiliaozi 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 Yellow Emperor's punishment and virtue were the work of men, not the stars of Heaven
Long ago King Hui of Liang asked Wei Liao, "I have heard that the Yellow Emperor had punishment and virtue (刑德), and with them won a hundred victories in a hundred battles. Was there such a thing?" Wei Liao said, "It was not so. What the Yellow Emperor called punishment and virtue was to strike with punishment and to hold with virtue. It was not what the world calls punishment and virtue. What the world calls punishment and virtue is the offices of Heaven, the seasons and days, yin and yang, facing toward and turning away. What the Yellow Emperor had was the work of men, and nothing more. How do I say this?
2When the wall is high and the moat deep, the offices of Heaven and the seasons are of no use
Suppose there is a walled town here. Attack it from the east or the west, and you cannot take it. Attack it from the south or the north, and you cannot take it. Of these four, how could there not be one that follows the season and rides the advantage? And yet it cannot be taken. Why is that? Because the wall is high and the moat is deep, because weapons and the gear of battle are ready, and because men have planned and hold it. Seen in this way, the offices of Heaven and the seasons and days are not the equal of the work of men."