Art of War 13.18
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Use Of Spies 用間篇
微哉微哉無所不用間也
Be subtle! be subtle!
and use your spies for every kind of business.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Cf. VI. §9: 微乎微乎. Capt. Calthrop translates: “Wonderful indeed is the power of spies.”
Character glossary
- 微wēismall, tiny, trifling; micro-
- 哉zāifinal exclamatory particle
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 所suǒplace, location; "that which", a particl
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 用yòngto use, to employ, to apply; use
- 間jiānbetween, among; midpoint; space, place,
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
- Analects 9.7
- Art of War 13.7
- Art of War 13.15
- Mencius 4A.20
- Zhuangzi Autumn Floods
- Zhuangzi Mountain Trees
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.