Art of War 6.34
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Weak Points And Strong 虛實篇
故五行無常勝四時無常位日有短長月有死生
The five elements
are not always equally predominant;
the four seasons make way for each other in turn.
There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.
Lionel Giles's notes
Water, fire, wood, metal, earth.
That is, as Wang Hsi says: 迭相克也 “they predominate alternately.”
Literally, “have no invariable seat.”
Cf. V. § 6. The purport of the passage is simply to illustrate the want of fixity in war by the changes constantly taking place in Nature. The comparison is not very happy, however, because the regularity of the phenomena which Sun Tzŭ mentions is by no means paralleled in war.
Character glossary
- 故gùreason, cause; happening, instance
- 五wǔfive; surname
- 行xíngto go, to walk, to move; professional
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 常chángcommon, general, normal; always, frequen
- 勝shèngvictory; to excel, to truimph
- 四sìfour
- 時shítime, season; period, era, age
- 位wèiseat, throne; rank, status; position, lo
- 日rìsun; day; daytime
- 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
- 短duǎnbrief, short; deficient, lacking
- 長zhǎnglong, lasting; to excel in
- 月yuèmoon; month
- 死sǐdead; death; impassable, inflexible
- 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi On Swords
- Zhuangzi Tien Tzŭ Fang
- Art of War 9.10
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 27
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 69
- Hexagram 19
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.