Art of War 11.16
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Nine Situations 九地篇
卒離而不集兵合而不齊
When the enemy’s men were scattered, they prevented them from concentrating;
even when their forces were united, they managed to keep them in disorder.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Capt. Calthrop translates 卒離 “they scattered the enemy,” which cannot be right.
Mei Yao-ch‘ên’s note makes the sense plain: 或已離而不能合或雖合而不能齊. All these clauses, of course, down to 不齊, are dependent on 使 in § 15.
Character glossary
- 卒zúsoldier; servant; at last, finally
- 離lírare beast; strange; elegant
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 集jíto gather, to collect; set, collection
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
- 合héto combine, to join, to unite; to gather
- 齊qíeven, uniform, of equal length
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi The Secret of Life
- Zhuangzi Contingencies
- Mencius 3A.4
- Mencius 6A.7
- Zhuangzi How to Govern
- Zhuangzi Language
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.