Wei Liaozi — Discussing Regulations尉繚子 制談

In all matters of war the regulations must be fixed first. When the regulations are fixed first, the soldiers are not disordered; when the soldiers are not disordered, the shape of the army is clear. Where the gong and the drum point, a hundred men fight to the last. To break the ranks and throw the lines into confusion, a thousand men fight to the last. To overturn an army and kill its general, ten thousand men level their blades together. Then no one under heaven can withstand them in battle.

In ancient times the soldiers had their tens and files (什伍) and the chariots had their sections and ranks (偏列). When the drum sounded and the flags waved, the first to scale the wall was never anyone but a strong man of the state, and the first to die was never anyone but a strong man of the state.

To take one man from the enemy and lose a hundred of our own is to supply the enemy and to be wounded gravely, and the generals of this age cannot stop it. To be levied and assigned to an army and then run home, or to turn and flee of oneself in the face of battle, is the worst harm of desertion, and the generals of this age cannot stop it. What kills a man beyond a hundred paces is the bow and arrow, and what kills a man within fifty paces is the spear and the halberd. Yet when the general has already beaten the drum, the officers and men clamor at one another, snapping their arrows, breaking their spears and hugging their halberds, and count it a gain to go out last, and so they fight. Where there are these several things, the army defeats itself from within, and the generals of this age cannot stop it. The soldiers lose their tens and files, the chariots lose their sections and ranks, the unorthodox troops abandon their general and run, and the great host runs as well, and the generals of this age cannot stop it. A general who can stop these four climbs high mountains, crosses deep waters and breaks into firm lines. One who cannot stop these four is like a man who has lost boat and oars and would cross the great rivers: it cannot be done.

It is not that the people delight in death and hate life. It is that the commands are clear and the laws and regulations are exact, and so they can be made to go forward. Rewards are made clear before them and punishments are settled behind them, and so when they set out they meet with gain, and when they move they have merit.

Set one captain over a hundred men, one sima over a thousand, and one general over ten thousand, and punish the many with the few, the strong with the weak. Please hear your servant's words. This method is enough to make the host of the three armies punish one man with no fault in the penalty, so that a father dares not let his son go and a son dares not let his father go. How much less a man of the state?

When one robber takes up a sword and strikes in the market, among ten thousand men there is none who does not get out of his way. Your servant says, "It is not that the one man alone is brave. It is that the ten thousand are all worthless." Why is that? "Because one who is set on dying and one who is set on living are by nature not the same." Hear your servant's method, and it is enough to make the host of the three armies into one robber set on death, so that none can stand before them and none can follow behind them, and they can go out alone and come in alone. Those who go out alone and come in alone are the army of a true king or of a hegemon.

Who was it that led a host of ninety thousand and none under heaven could withstand him? It is said, "Duke Huan." Who was it that led a host of seventy thousand and none under heaven dared withstand him? It is said, "Wu Qi." Who was it that led a host of thirty thousand and none under heaven dared withstand him? It is said, "Sun Wu." Now among the states of the world there is none whose commanders do not lead a host of two hundred thousand, and yet they cannot achieve merit and fame, because they are not clear about forbidding and releasing, opening and blocking. Make the regulations clear, and if one man wins by them, then ten men win by them too; if ten men win by them, then a hundred and a thousand and ten thousand win by them too. Therefore it is said, "Make our gear handy and nourish our martial daring, and send them out as a bird strikes, as a torrent rushes into a gorge a thousand fathoms deep."

Now when a state suffers trouble, it sends out envoys with heavy gifts, sends out a beloved son as a hostage, and cuts off borderland to give away, and so it gains the help of the world. Its troops are called a hundred thousand, but in truth they are no more than a few tens of thousands. When those troops come, there is no one who does not say to his general, "Do not be below another. Fight first." But in truth they cannot be got to fight.

Reckon up the people within our borders: without the files they cannot be set right. Order a host of a hundred thousand by regulation, and the king can surely make them wear our clothes and eat our food. That we fight and do not win, that we guard and do not hold firm, is not the crime of our people; it is brought on from within. That the states of the world help us in battle is like a fine steed running while dull nags raise their manes and contend with it. How could they carry on after us?

I take the world's use as my use and the world's regulations as my regulations. I put my commands in order and make my punishments and rewards clear, so that in all the world there is nothing to eat but by farming and nowhere to gain rank but by battle, and the people bare their arms and vie to go out to farming and to battle. Then there is no enemy under heaven. Therefore it is said, "Send out commands and orders, and they are trusted and carried out within the state."

If there is one among the people who says he can defeat the enemy, do not allow his empty words. You must test whether he can indeed fight.

To look on another's land and take it, to divide another's people and rear them, one must be able to keep worthy men within. To be unable to keep worthy men within and yet to want to hold the world is surely to have one's army overturned and one's general killed. When it comes to this, though you win in battle the state grows weaker, and though you gain land the state grows poorer, because the regulations within the state have rotted away.