Art of War 7.19
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Manœuvring 軍爭篇
難知如陰動如雷霆
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Lionel Giles (1910), Sun Tzŭ on the Art of War (1910), with Giles' notes — public domain.
Lionel Giles's notes
The original text has 震 instead of 霆. Cf. IV. § 7. Tu Yu quotes a saying of T‘ai Kung which has passed into a proverb: 疾雷不及掩耳疾電不及瞑目 “You cannot shut your ears to the thunder or your eyes to the lightning — so rapid are they.” Likewise, an attack should be made so quickly that it cannot be parried.
Character glossary
- 難nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
- 知zhīto know, to perceive, to comprehend
- 如rúas, as if, like, such as, supposing
- 陰yīnthe female principle; dark, shaded; hidd
- 動dòngto move, to happen; movement, action
- 雷léithunder; surname
- 霆tínga sudden peal of thunder
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi On Swords
- Zhuangzi The Circling Sky
- Art of War 7.18
- Mencius 6B.2
- Zhuangzi Lieh Tzŭ
- Art of War 4.10
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.