Art of War 10.4
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Terrain 地形篇
可以往難以返曰挂
Ground which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy is called entangling .
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Capt. Calthrop is wrong in translating 返 “retreat from it.”
Character glossary
- 可kěmay, can, -able; possibly
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 往wǎngto go, to depart; past, former
- 難nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
- 返fǎnto restore, to return, to revert to
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 挂guàto suspend, to put up, to hang; suspense
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 10.5
- Art of War 10.2
- Art of War 11.5
- Hexagram 4
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Art of War 10.12
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.