Art of War 1.7
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Laying Plans 計篇
天者陰陽寒暑時制也
Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
The commentators, I think, make an unnecessary mystery of 陰陽. Thus Mêng Shih defines the words as 剛柔盈縮 “the hard and the soft, waxing and waning,” which does not help us much. Wang Hsi, however, may be right in saying that what is meant is 總天道 “the general economy of Heaven,” including the five elements, the four seasons, wind and clouds, and other phenomena.
Character glossary
- 天tiānsky, heaven; god, celestial
- 者zhěthat which; they who; those who
- 陰yīnthe female principle; dark, shaded; hidd
- 陽yángthe male principle; bright, sunny; clear
- 寒hánchilly, cold; poor; to shiver, to trembl
- 暑shǔhot; heat; summer
- 時shítime, season; period, era, age
- 制zhìsystem; to establish; to manufacture; to
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi Lieh Tzŭ
- Zhuangzi On Letting Alone
- Zhuangzi The Great Supreme
- Mencius 7B.34
- Zhuangzi Autumn Floods
- Zhuangzi The Old Fisherman
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.
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