Art of War 3.16
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Attack By Stratagem 謀攻篇
三軍既惑且疑則諸侯之難至矣是謂亂軍引勝
But when the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from the other feudal princes. This is simply bringing anarchy into the army, and flinging victory away.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Most of the commentators take 引 in the sense of 奪, which it seems to bear also in the Li Chi, 玉藻, I. 18. [卻 is there given as its equivalent, but Legge tries notwithstanding to retain the more usual sense, translating “draw... back,” which is hardly defensible.] Tu Mu and Wang Hsi, however, think 引勝 means “leading up to the enemy’s victory.”
Character glossary
- 三sānthree
- 軍jūnarmy, military; soldiers, troops
- 既jìalready, since, then; both; de facto
- 惑huòto confuse, to mislead; to doubt
- 且qiěmoreover, also (post-subject); about to,
- 疑yíto doubt, to question, to suspect
- 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
- 諸zhūall, many, various; surname
- 侯hóumarquis, lord; target in archery
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 難nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
- 至zhìreach, arrive; very, extremely
- 矣yǐparticle of completed action
- 是shìto be; indeed, right, yes; okay
- 謂wèito call, to say, to tell; name, title; m
- 亂luànanarchy, chaos; revolt
- 引yǐnto pull, to stretch; to draw; to attract
- 勝shèngvictory; to excel, to truimph
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi Robber Chê
- Zhuangzi Tien Tzŭ Fang
- Zhuangzi The Empire
- Art of War 2.4
- Mencius 4A.9
- The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 21
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.