Art of War 11.41
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Nine Situations 九地篇
九地之變屈伸之利人情之理不可不察也
The different measures suited to the nine varieties of ground;
the expediency of aggressive or defensive tactics;
and the fundamental laws of human nature: these are things that must most certainly be studied.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Chang Yü says: 九地之法不可拘泥 “One must not be hide-bound in interpreting the rules for the nine varieties of ground.
The use of 屈伸 “contraction and expansion” may be illustrated by the saying 屈以求伸, which almost exactly corresponds to the French “il faut reculer pour mieux sauter.” Capt. Calthrop, more suo, avoids a real translation and has: “the suiting of the means to the occasion.”
Character glossary
- 九jiǔnine
- 地deearth, ground, soil; land, region; struc
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 變biànto change, to transform, to alter; rebel
- 屈qūto bend, to flex; bent, crooked, crouche
- 伸shēnto extend, to stretch out, to open up; t
- 利lìgains, advantage, profit, merit
- 人rénman, person; people
- 情qíngemotion, feeling, sentiment
- 理lǐscience, reason, logic; to manage
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 可kěmay, can, -able; possibly
- 察cháto examine, to investigate, to observe
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi On Letting Alone
- Zhuangzi Autumn Floods
- Art of War 4.7
- Mencius 2B.10
- Zhuangzi The Old Fisherman
- Zhuangzi Robber Chê
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.