Art of War 11.61
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Nine Situations 九地篇
并敵一向千里殺將
By persistently hanging on the enemy’s flank,
we shall succeed in the long run
in killing the commander-in-chief.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
I understand the first four words to mean “accompanying the enemy in one direction.” Ts‘ao Kung says: 幷兵向敵 “unite the soldiers and make for the enemy.” But such a violent displacement of characters is quite indefensible. Mei Yao-ch‘ên is the only commentator who seems to have grasped the meaning: 隨敵一向然後發伏 出奇. The T‘u Shu reads 并力.
Literally, “after a thousand li.”
Always a great point with the Chinese.
Character glossary
- 并bìngto combine, to annex; also, what's more
- 敵díenemy, foe, rival; to match; to resist
- 一yīone; a, an; alone
- 向xiàngtowards; direction, trend
- 千qiānthousand; many, numerous; very
- 里lǐunit of distance equal to 0.5km; village
- 殺shāto kill, to murder, to slaughter; to hur
- 將jiāngthe future, what will be; ready, prepare
Passages with shared wording
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.