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Wei Liaozi — The General as Judge尉繚子 將理

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) · 5 passages · 263 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.

1A general is master of the ten thousand things and is partial to no one man

凡將，理官也，萬物之主也，不私於一人。夫能無私於一人，故萬物至而制之，萬物至而命之。

A general holds an office of governing. He is the master of the ten thousand things, and he is partial to no one man. Because he can be free of partiality to any one man, when the ten thousand things come to him he governs them, and when the ten thousand things come to him he gives them their orders.

2The gentleman does not rescue a prisoner five paces away

君子不救囚於五步之外，雖鉤兵射之，弗追也。故善審囚之情，不待菙楚，而囚之情可畢矣。

The gentleman does not rescue a prisoner five paces away, and though hooked weapons are shot at the man, he does not give chase. So one who is good at looking into a prisoner's case need not wait for the rod, and the prisoner's case can be known in full.

3Beat a man's back and burn his sides, and even the state's best will accuse himself falsely

笞人之背，灼人之脅，束人之指，而訊囚之情，雖國士有不勝其酷，而自誣矣。

Beat a man's back, burn his sides, bind his fingers and so question a prisoner about his case, and even the best man of the state cannot bear such cruelty, and he will accuse himself falsely.

4"With a thousand in gold a man does not die, with a hundred he is not punished"

今世諺云：『千金不死，百金不刑。』試聽臣之術，雖有堯、舜之智，不能關一言；雖有萬金，不能用一銖。

There is a saying in the world today: "With a thousand in gold a man does not die; with a hundred in gold he is not punished." Hear your servant's method, and though a man had the wisdom of Yao and Shun he could not slip in one word, and though he had ten thousand in gold he could not spend a penny of it.

5A hundred thousand honest people tangled up in prison

今夫決獄，小圄不下數十，中圄不下數百，大圄不下數千。十人聯百人之事，百人聯千人之事，千人聯萬人之事，所聯之者，親戚兄弟也，其次婚姻也，其次知識故人也。是農無不離田業，賈無不離肆宅，士大夫無不離官府。如此關聯良民，皆囚之情也。兵法曰：『十萬之師出，日費千金。』今良民十萬，而聯於囹圄，上不能省，臣以為危也。

Now in the settling of cases, a small prison holds no fewer than several tens, a middling prison no fewer than several hundreds, a great prison no fewer than several thousands. Ten men are tangled in the affairs of a hundred, a hundred in the affairs of a thousand, a thousand in the affairs of ten thousand. Those who are tangled in them are kinsmen and brothers, and next those joined by marriage, and next acquaintances and old friends. So there is no farmer who does not leave his fields, no merchant who does not leave his shop, no officer or great officer who does not leave his office. To tangle up honest people in this way is the whole state of these cases. The art of war says, "When a host of a hundred thousand goes out, it costs a thousand in gold a day." Now a hundred thousand honest people are tangled up in prison and those above cannot look into it. Your servant holds this to be dangerous.

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