Art of War 13.6
The Art of War (孫子兵法), The Use Of Spies 用間篇
必取於人知敵之情者也
Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Mei Yao-ch‘ên has rather an interesting note: 鬼神之情可以筮卜知形氣之物可以象類求天地之理可以度數驗唯敵之情必由間者而後知也 “Knowledge of the spirit-world is to be obtained by divination; information in natural science may be sought by inductive reasoning; the laws of the universe can be verified by mathematical calculation: but the dispositions of an enemy are ascertainable through spies and spies alone.”
Character glossary
- 必bìsurely, certainly; must; will
- 取qǔto take, to receive, to obtain; to selec
- 於yúat, in, on; to, from; alas!
- 人rénman, person; people
- 知zhīto know, to perceive, to comprehend
- 敵díenemy, foe, rival; to match; to resist
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 情qíngemotion, feeling, sentiment
- 者zhěthat which; they who; those who
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.