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

dynasties." The two most shameless offenders in this respect are Wu Ch`i and Huai-nan Tzu, both of them
important historical personages in their day. The former lived only a century after the alleged date of Sun Tzu,
and his death is known to have taken place in 381 B.C. It was to him, according to Liu Hsiang, that Tseng
Shen delivered the TSO CHUAN, which had been entrusted to him by its author. [29] Now the fact that
quotations from the ART OF WAR, acknowledged or otherwise, are to be found in so many authors of
different epochs, establishes a very strong anterior to them all, -- in other words, that Sun Tzu's treatise was
already in existence towards the end of the 5th century B.C. Further proof of Sun Tzu's antiquity is furnished
by the archaic or wholly obsolete meanings attaching to a number of the words he uses. A list of these, which
might perhaps be extended, is given in the HSU LU; and though some of the interpretations are doubtful, the
Chapter V. 8
main argument is hardly affected thereby. Again, it must not be forgotten that Yeh Shui- hsin, a scholar and
critic of the first rank, deliberately pronounces the style of the 13 chapters to belong to the early part of the
fifth century. Seeing that he is actually engaged in an attempt to disprove the existence of Sun Wu himself, we
may be sure that he would not have hesitated to assign the work to a later date had he not honestly believed
the contrary. And it is precisely on such a point that the judgment of an educated Chinaman will carry most
weight. Other internal evidence is not far to seek. Thus in XIII. ss. 1, there is an unmistakable allusion to the
ancient system of land-tenure which had already passed away by the time of Mencius, who was anxious to see
it revived in a modified form. [30] The only warfare Sun Tzu knows is that carried on between the various
feudal princes, in which armored chariots play a large part. Their use seems to have entirely died out before
the end of the Chou dynasty. He speaks as a man of Wu, a state which ceased to exist as early as 473 B.C. On
this I shall touch presently.

But once refer the work to the 5th century or earlier, and the chances of its being other than a bona fide
production are sensibly diminished. The great age of forgeries did not come until long after. That it should
have been forged in the period immediately following 473 is particularly unlikely, for no one, as a rule,
hastens to identify himself with a lost cause. As for Yeh Shui-hsin's theory, that the author was a literary
recluse, that seems to me quite untenable. If one thing is more apparent than another after reading the maxims
of Sun Tzu, it is that their essence has been distilled from a large store of personal observation and experience.
They reflect the mind not only of a born strategist, gifted with a rare faculty of generalization, but also of a
practical soldier closely acquainted with the military conditions of his time. To say nothing of the fact that
these sayings have been accepted and endorsed by all the greatest captains of Chinese history, they offer a
combination of freshness and sincerity, acuteness and common sense, which quite excludes the idea that they
were artificially concocted in the study. If we admit, then, that the 13 chapters were the genuine production of
a military man living towards the end of the "CH`UN CH`IU" period, are we not bound, in spite of the silence
of the TSO CHUAN, to accept Ssu-ma Ch`ien's account in its entirety? In view of his high repute as a sober
historian, must we not hesitate to assume that the records he drew upon for Sun Wu's biography were false
and untrustworthy? The answer, I fear, must be in the negative. There is still one grave, if not fatal, objection
to the chronology involved in the story as told in the SHIH CHI, which, so far as I am aware, nobody has yet
pointed out. There are two passages in Sun Tzu in which he alludes to contemporary affairs. The first in in VI.
ss. 21: --

Though according to my estimate the soldiers of Yueh exceed our own in number, that shall advantage them
nothing in the matter of victory. I say then that victory can be achieved.

The other is in XI. ss. 30: --

Asked if an army can be made to imitate the SHUAI-JAN, I should answer, Yes. For the men of Wu and the
men of Yueh are enemies; yet if they are crossing a river in the same boat and are caught by a storm, they will
come to each other's assistance just as the left hand helps the right.