Art of War 7.6
The Art of War (孫子兵法), Manœuvring 軍爭篇
舉軍而爭利則不及委軍而爭利則輜重捐
If you set a fully equipped army in march in order to snatch an advantage, the chances are that you will be too late.
On the other hand, to detach a flying column for the purpose involves the sacrifice of its baggage and stores.
Lionel Giles's notes
The original text has 故 instead of 舉; but a verb is needed to balance 委.
委軍 is evidently unintelligible to the Chinese commentators, who paraphrase the sentence as though it began with 棄輜. Absolute tautology in the apodosis can then only be avoided by drawing an impossibly fine distinction between 棄 and 捐. I submit my own rendering without much enthusiasm, being convinced that there is some deep-seated corruption in the text. On the whole, it is clear that Sun Tzŭ does not approve of a lengthy march being undertaken without supplies. Cf. infra, § 11.
Character glossary
- 舉jǔto raise; to recommend; to praise
- 軍jūnarmy, military; soldiers, troops
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 爭zhēngto dispute, to fight, to contend, to str
- 利lìgains, advantage, profit, merit
- 則zérule, law, regulation; grades
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 及jíto extend; to reach; and; in time
- 委wěito appoint, to commission, to send
- 輜zīa supply cart, covered wagon, dray
- 重zhòngheavy, weighty; to double, to repeat
- 捐juānto give, to donate; to give up, to renou
Passages with shared wording
- Art of War 7.7
- Art of War 7.9
- Art of War 7.10
- Zhuangzi Robber Chê
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 26
- Art of War 7.11
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.