Art of War 6.13
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Weak Points And Strong 虛實篇
故形人而我無形則我專而敵分
By discovering the enemy’s dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy’s must be divided.
Lionel Giles's notes
The conclusion is perhaps not very obvious, but Chang Yü (after Mei Yao-ch‘ên) rightly explains it thus: “If the enemy’s dispositions are visible, we can make for him in one body; whereas, our own dispositions being kept secret, the enemy will be obliged to divide his forces in order to guard against attack from every quarter.” 形 is here used as an active verb: “to make to appear.” See IV, note on heading. Capt. Calthrop’s “making feints” is quite wrong.
Character glossary
- 故gùreason, cause; happening, instance
- 形xíngform, shape; to appear; to describe; to
- 人rénman, person; people
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 我wǒI, me, my; our, us
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
- 專zhuānconcentrated, specialized; to monopolize
- 敵díenemy, foe, rival; to match; to resist
- 分fēnto divide, to allocate; fraction; small
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 6.14
- Art of War 6.25
- Zhuangzi The Secret of Life
- The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 24
- Zhuangzi The Universe
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 41
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.