"The_Art_of_War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tzu Sun)

characteristic of the stern commander known to history, that it is hard indeed to conceive of them as the work
of a mere LITTERATEUR. Sometimes, indeed, owing to extreme compression, they are scarcely intelligible
and stand no less in need of a commentary than the text itself. [40]

2. MENG SHIH. The commentary which has come down to us under this name is comparatively meager, and
nothing about the author is known. Even his personal name has not been recorded. Chi T`ien-pao's edition
places him after Chia Lin,and Ch`ao Kung- wu also assigns him to the T`ang dynasty, [41] but this is a
mistake. In Sun Hsing-yen's preface, he appears as Meng Shih of the Liang dynasty [502-557]. Others would
identify him with Meng K`ang of the 3rd century. He is named in one work as the last of the "Five
Commentators," the others being Wei Wu Ti, Tu Mu, Ch`en Hao and Chia Lin.

3. LI CH`UAN of the 8th century was a well-known writer on military tactics. One of his works has been in
constant use down to the present day. The T`UNG CHIH mentions "Lives of famous generals from the Chou
to the T`ang dynasty" as written by him. [42] According to Ch`ao Kung-wu and the T`IEN-I-KO catalogue, he
followed a variant of the text of Sun Tzu which differs considerably from those now extant. His notes are
mostly short and to the point, and he frequently illustrates his remarks by anecdotes from Chinese history.

4. TU YU (died 812) did not publish a separate commentary on Sun Tzu, his notes being taken from the
T`UNG TIEN, the encyclopedic treatise on the Constitution which was his life- work. They are largely
repetitions of Ts`ao Kung and Meng Shih, besides which it is believed that he drew on the ancient
commentaries of Wang Ling and others. Owing to the peculiar arrangement of T`UNG TIEN, he has to
explain each passage on its merits, apart from the context, and sometimes his own explanation does not agree
Chapter V. 12

with that of Ts`ao Kung, whom he always quotes first. Though not strictly to be reckoned as one of the "Ten
Commentators," he was added to their number by Chi T`ien-pao, being wrongly placed after his grandson Tu
Mu.

5. TU MU (803-852) is perhaps the best known as a poet -- a bright star even in the glorious galaxy of the
T`ang period. We learn from Ch`ao Kung-wu that although he had no practical experience of war, he was
extremely fond of discussing the subject, and was moreover well read in the military history of the CH`UN
CH`IU and CHAN KUO eras. His notes, therefore, are well worth attention. They are very copious, and
replete with historical parallels. The gist of Sun Tzu's work is thus summarized by him: "Practice benevolence
and justice, but on the other hand make full use of artifice and measures of expediency." He further declared
that all the military triumphs and disasters of the thousand years which had elapsed since Sun Tzu's death
would, upon examination, be found to uphold and corroborate, in every particular, the maxims contained in
his book. Tu Mu's somewhat spiteful charge against Ts`ao Kung has already been considered elsewhere.

6. CH`EN HAO appears to have been a contemporary of Tu Mu. Ch`ao Kung-wu says that he was impelled to
write a new commentary on Sun Tzu because Ts`ao Kung's on the one hand was too obscure and subtle, and
that of Tu Mu on the other too long-winded and diffuse. Ou-yang Hsiu, writing in the middle of the 11th
century, calls Ts`ao Kung, Tu Mu and Ch`en Hao the three chief commentators on Sun Tzu, and observes that
Ch`en Hao is continually attacking Tu Mu's shortcomings. His commentary, though not lacking in merit, must
rank below those of his predecessors.

7. CHIA LIN is known to have lived under the T`ang dynasty, for his commentary on Sun Tzu is mentioned
in the T`ang Shu and was afterwards republished by Chi Hsieh of the same dynasty together with those of
Meng Shih and Tu Yu. It is of somewhat scanty texture, and in point of quality, too, perhaps the least valuable
of the eleven.