Art of War 6.22
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Weak Points And Strong 虛實篇
敵雖衆可使無鬥故策之而知得失之計
Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may prevent him from fighting.
Scheme so as to discover his plans and the likelihood of their success.
Lionel Giles's notes
Capt. Calthrop quite unwarrantably translates: “If the enemy be many in number, prevent him,” etc.
This is the first of four similarly constructed sentences, all of which present decided difficulties. Chang Yü explains 知得失之計 as 知其計之得失. This is perhaps the best way of taking the words, though Chia Lin, referring 計 to ourselves and not the enemy, offers the alternative of 我得彼失之計皆先知也 “Know beforehand all plans conducive to our success and to the enemy’s failure.”
Character glossary
- 敵díenemy, foe, rival; to match; to resist
- 雖suīalthough, even though
- 衆zhòngmultitude, crowd; the public
- 可kěmay, can, -able; possibly
- 使shǐcause, mission, orders; envoy, messenger
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 鬥dòuto struggle, to fight, to contend; measu
- 故gùreason, cause; happening, instance
- 策cèto urge, to whip; method, plan, policy
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 知zhīto know, to perceive, to comprehend
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable,
- 失shīto lose; to make a mistake, to neglect
- 計jìto calculate, to count; to plan, to reck
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 5.3
- Zhuangzi Tien Tzŭ Fang
- Zhuangzi The Universe
- Zhuangzi The Evidence of Virtue Complete
- Zhuangzi Autumn Floods
- Analects 12.13
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.