Art of War 10.12
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Terrain 地形篇
遠形者勢均難以挑戰戰而不利
If you are situated at a great distance from the enemy, and the strength of the two armies is equal,
it is not easy to provoke a battle,
and fighting will be to your disadvantage.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
The T‘ung Tien reads 夫通形均勢.
Ts‘ao Kung says that 挑戰 means 延敵 “challenging the enemy.” But the enemy being far away, that plainly involves, as Tu Yu says, 迎敵 “going to meet him.” The point of course is, that we must not think of undertaking a long and wearisome march, at the end of which 是我困敵銳 “we should, be exhausted and our adversary fresh and keen.”
Character glossary
- 遠yuǎndistant, remote, far; profound
- 形xíngform, shape; to appear; to describe; to
- 者zhěthat which; they who; those who
- 勢shìpower, force; tendency, attitude
- 均jūnequal, even, fair; level, uniform; also,
- 難nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 挑tiāoto select, to choose; picky, choosy; a l
- 戰zhànwar, fighting, battle
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 利lìgains, advantage, profit, merit
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 10.15
- Art of War 9.19
- Analects 8.3
- Mencius 2B.1
- Art of War 10.5
- Zhuangzi The Evidence of Virtue Complete
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.