Art of War 12.17
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Attack By Fire 火攻篇
非利不動非得不用非危不戰
Move not unless you see an advantage;
use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
起, the Yü Lan’s variant for 動, is adopted by Li Ch‘üan and Tu Mu.
Sun Tzŭ may at times appear to be over-cautious, but he never goes so far in that direction as the remarkable passage in the Tao Tê Ching, ch. 69: 吾不敢爲主而爲客不敢進寸而退尺 “I dare not take the initiative, but prefer to act on the defensive; I dare not advance an inch, but prefer to retreat a foot.”
Character glossary
- 非fēinot, negative, non-; to oppose
- 利lìgains, advantage, profit, merit
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 動dòngto move, to happen; movement, action
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable,
- 用yòngto use, to employ, to apply; use
- 危wēidangerous, precarious; high
- 戰zhànwar, fighting, battle
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 8.14
- Mencius 2B.1
- Art of War 3.2
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Art of War 7.18
- Mencius 2A.2
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.
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