Art of War 5.10
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Energy 埶篇
戰埶不過奇正奇正之變不可勝窮也
In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack — the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of manœuvres.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Character glossary
- 戰zhànwar, fighting, battle
- 埶yìart
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 過guòpass; to go across, to pass through
- 奇qístrange, unusual, odd; uncanny, occult
- 正zhèngstraight, right, proper, correct, just,
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 變biànto change, to transform, to alter; rebel
- 可kěmay, can, -able; possibly
- 勝shèngvictory; to excel, to truimph
- 窮qióngpoor, destitute; to exhaust
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 5.21
- Art of War 5.7
- Art of War 5.8
- Art of War 5.9
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Art of War 5.3
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.