Art of War 6.24
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Weak Points And Strong 虛實篇
角之而知有餘不足之處
Carefully compare the opposing army with your own,
so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
Tu Yu is right, I think, in attributing this force to 角; Ts‘ao Kung defines it simply as 量. Capt. Calthrop surpasses himself with the staggering translation “Flap the wings”! Can the Latin cornu (in its figurative sense) have been at the back of his mind?
Cf. IV. § 6.
Character glossary
- 角jiǎoangle, corner; horn, horn-shaped
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 知zhīto know, to perceive, to comprehend
- 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
- 餘yúsurplus, remainder, excess
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 足zúfoot; to attain, to satisfy; enough
- 處chùto reside at, to live in; place, locale;
Passages with shared wording
- Mencius 4B.33
- Zhuangzi The Evidence of Virtue Complete
- Mencius 3A.4
- The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 13
- Analects 8.11
- Zhuangzi Nourishment of the Soul
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.