Art of War 13.27

The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Use Of Spies 用間篇

故惟明君賢將能以上智爲間者必成大功此兵之要三軍之所恃而動也

Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying,

and thereby they achieve great results.

Spies are a most important element in war, because on them depends an army’s ability to move.

Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.

Lionel Giles's notes

Ch‘ên Hao compares § 15: 非聖智不能用間. He points out that 湯武之聖伊呂宜用 “the god-like wisdom of Ch‘êng T‘ang and Wu Wang led them to employ I Yin and Lü Shang.” The T‘u Shu omits 惟.

Tu Mu closes with a note of warning: 夫水所以能濟舟亦有因水而覆沒者間所以能成功亦有憑間而傾敗者 “Just as water, which carries a boat from bank to bank, may also be the means of sinking it, so reliance on spies, while productive of great results, is oft-times the cause of utter destruction.”

The antecedent to 此 must be either 間者 or 用間者 understood from the whole sentence. Chia Lin says that an army without spies is like a man without ears or eyes.

Character glossary

Passages with shared wording

Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.