Art of War 11.1
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Nine Situations 九地篇
孫子曰用兵之法有散地有輕地有爭地有交地有衢地有重地有圮地有圍地有死地
Sun Tzŭ said: The art of war recognises nine varieties of ground: (1) Dispersive ground; (2) facile ground; (3) contentious ground; (4) open ground; (5) ground of intersecting highways; (6) serious ground; (7) difficult ground; (8) hemmed-in ground; (9) desperate ground.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Character glossary
- 孫sūngrandchild, descendent; surname
- 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thin
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 用yòngto use, to employ, to apply; use
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 法fǎlaw, rule, statute; method, way; French
- 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
- 散sànto scatter, to disperse, to break up
- 地deearth, ground, soil; land, region; struc
- 輕qīnglight, gentle; simple, easy
- 爭zhēngto dispute, to fight, to contend, to str
- 交jiāoto connect; to deliver, to exchange; to
- 衢qúhighway; thoroughfare, intersection
- 重zhòngheavy, weighty; to double, to repeat
- 圮pǐdestroyed, ruined; to injure; to subvert
- 圍wéito surround, to encircle, to corral
- 死sǐdead; death; impassable, inflexible
Passages with shared wording
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.