Art of War 5.4
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Energy 埶篇
兵之所加如以碬投卵者虛實是也
That the impact of your army may be like a grindstone dashed against an egg — this is effected by the science of weak points and strong.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
虛實, literally “the hollow and the solid,” is the title of chap. VI. 碫 tuan is the T‘u Shu reading, 碬 hsia that of the standard text. It appears from K‘ang Hsi that there has been much confusion between the two characters, and indeed, it is probable that one of them has really crept into the language as a mistake for the other.
Character glossary
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 所suǒplace, location; "that which", a particl
- 加jiāto add to, to increase, to augment
- 如rúas, as if, like, such as, supposing
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 碬xiáwhetstone
- 投tóuto pitch, to throw; to bid, to invest
- 卵luǎnegg, ovum, roe; ovary, testes; to spawn
- 者zhěthat which; they who; those who
- 虛xūfalse; worthless, hollow, empty; vain
- 實shíreal, true; honest, sincere
- 是shìto be; indeed, right, yes; okay
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.