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

These two paragraphs are extremely valuable as evidence of the date of composition. They assign the work to
the period of the struggle between Wu and Yueh. So much has been observed by Pi I-hsun. But what has
hitherto escaped notice is that they also seriously impair the credibility of Ssu-ma Ch`ien's narrative. As we
have seen above, the first positive date given in connection with Sun Wu is 512 B.C. He is then spoken of as a
general, acting as confidential adviser to Ho Lu, so that his alleged introduction to that monarch had already
taken place, and of course the 13 chapters must have been written earlier still. But at that time, and for several
years after, down to the capture of Ying in 506, Ch`u and not Yueh, was the great hereditary enemy of Wu.
The two states, Ch`u and Wu, had been constantly at war for over half a century, [31] whereas the first war
between Wu and Yueh was waged only in 510, [32] and even then was no more than a short interlude
sandwiched in the midst of the fierce struggle with Ch`u. Now Ch`u is not mentioned in the 13 chapters at all.
The natural inference is that they were written at a time when Yueh had become the prime antagonist of Wu,
that is, after Ch`u had suffered the great humiliation of 506. At this point, a table of dates may be found
Chapter V. 9
useful.

B.C. | | 514 | Accession of Ho Lu. 512 | Ho Lu attacks Ch`u, but is dissuaded from entering Ying, | the capital.
SHI CHI mentions Sun Wu as general. 511 | Another attack on Ch`u. 510 | Wu makes a successful attack on
Yueh. This is the first | war between the two states. 509 | or | Ch`u invades Wu, but is signally defeated at
Yu-chang. 508 | 506 | Ho Lu attacks Ch`u with the aid of T`ang and Ts`ai. | Decisive battle of Po-chu, and
capture of Ying. Last | mention of Sun Wu in SHIH CHI. 505 | Yueh makes a raid on Wu in the absence of its
army. Wu | is beaten by Ch`in and evacuates Ying. 504 | Ho Lu sends Fu Ch`ai to attack Ch`u. 497 | Kou
Chien becomes King of Yueh. 496 | Wu attacks Yueh, but is defeated by Kou Chien at Tsui-li. | Ho Lu is
killed. 494 | Fu Ch`ai defeats Kou Chien in the great battle of Fu- | chaio, and enters the capital of Yueh. 485 |
or | Kou Chien renders homage to Wu. Death of Wu Tzu-hsu. 484 | 482 | Kou Chien invades Wu in the
absence of Fu Ch`ai. 478 | to | Further attacks by Yueh on Wu. 476 | 475 | Kou Chien lays siege to the capital
of Wu. 473 | Final defeat and extinction of Wu.

The sentence quoted above from VI. ss. 21 hardly strikes me as one that could have been written in the full
flush of victory. It seems rather to imply that, for the moment at least, the tide had turned against Wu, and that
she was getting the worst of the struggle. Hence we may conclude that our treatise was not in existence in 505,
before which date Yueh does not appear to have scored any notable success against Wu. Ho Lu died in 496, so
that if the book was written for him, it must have been during the period 505-496, when there was a lull in the
hostilities, Wu having presumably exhausted by its supreme effort against Ch`u. On the other hand, if we
choose to disregard the tradition connecting Sun Wu's name with Ho Lu, it might equally well have seen the
light between 496 and 494, or possibly in the period 482-473, when Yueh was once again becoming a very
serious menace. [33] We may feel fairly certain that the author, whoever he may have been, was not a man of
any great eminence in his own day. On this point the negative testimony of the TSO CHUAN far outweighs
any shred of authority still attaching to the SHIH CHI, if once its other facts are discredited. Sun Hsing-yen,
however, makes a feeble attempt to explain the omission of his name from the great commentary. It was Wu
Tzu-hsu, he says, who got all the credit of Sun Wu's exploits, because the latter (being an alien) was not
rewarded with an office in the State. How then did the Sun Tzu legend originate? It may be that the growing
celebrity of the book imparted by degrees a kind of factitious renown to its author. It was felt to be only right
and proper that one so well versed in the science of war should have solid achievements to his credit as well.
Now the capture of Ying was undoubtedly the greatest feat of arms in Ho Lu's reign; it made a deep and
lasting impression on all the surrounding states, and raised Wu to the short-lived zenith of her power. Hence,
what more natural, as time went on, than that the acknowledged master of strategy, Sun Wu, should be
popularly identified with that campaign, at first perhaps only in the sense that his brain conceived and planned
it; afterwards, that it was actually carried out by him in conjunction with Wu Yuan, [34] Po P`ei and Fu Kai?
It is obvious that any attempt to reconstruct even the outline of Sun Tzu's life must be based almost wholly on
conjecture. With this necessary proviso, I should say that he probably entered the service of Wu about the