Art of War 6.14
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Weak Points And Strong 虛實篇
我專爲一敵分爲十是以十共其一也則我衆而敵寡
We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole,
which means that we shall be many to the enemy’s few.
Lionel Giles's notes
The original text has 以敵攻其一也, which in accordance with the T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan has been altered as above. I adopt the more plausible reading of the T‘u Shu: 是以十攻其一也, in spite of having to refer 十 to ourselves and not to the enemy. Thus Tu Yu and Mei Yao-ch‘ên both regard 十 as the undivided force, consisting of so many parts, and 一 as each of the isolated fractions of the enemy. The alteration of 攻 into 共 can hardly be right, though the true text might conceivably have been 是以十共攻其一也.
Character glossary
- 我wǒI, me, my; our, us
- 專zhuānconcentrated, specialized; to monopolize
- 爲wèido, handle, govern, act; be
- 一yīone; a, an; alone
- 敵díenemy, foe, rival; to match; to resist
- 分fēnto divide, to allocate; fraction; small
- 十shíten, tenth; complete; perfect
- 是shìto be; indeed, right, yes; okay
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 共gòngall, total; together; to share
- 其qíhis, her, its, their; that
- 也yěalso, too
- 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
- 衆zhòngmultitude, crowd; the public
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 寡guǎwidowed; friendless, alone
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 6.13
- Zhuangzi Mountain Trees
- Zhuangzi Kêng Sang Ch’u
- Zhuangzi Nourishment of the Soul
- Zhuangzi Tsê Yang
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.