Art of War 11.24
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Nine Situations 九地篇
兵士甚陷則不懼無所往則固深入則拘不得已則鬥
Soldiers when in desperate straits lose the sense of fear. If there is no place of refuge, they will stand firm. If they are in the heart of a hostile country, they will show a stubborn front.
If there is no help for it, they will fight hard.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Capt. Calthrop weakly says: “there is unity,” as though the text were 則專, as in § 20. But 拘 introduces quite a new idea—that of tenacity — which Ts‘ao Kung tries to explain by the word 縛 “to bind fast.”
Character glossary
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
- 士shìscholar, gentleman; soldier
- 甚shénconsiderably; very, extremely; a great e
- 陷xiànto sink, to plunge; trap, pitfall
- 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 懼jùto fear, to dread
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 所suǒplace, location; "that which", a particl
- 往wǎngto go, to depart; past, former
- 固gùto solidify; strength
- 深shēndeep, profound; depth
- 入rùto enter, to come in; to join
- 拘jūto detain, to restrain, to seize
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable,
- 已yǐalready; finished; to stop; then, afterw
- 鬥dòuto struggle, to fight, to contend; measu
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 11.51
- Art of War 11.20
- Zhuangzi Language
- Zhuangzi Lieh Tzŭ
- Zhuangzi Man Among Men
- Zhuangzi On Declining Power
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.