火攻
A technical chapter on fire attacks that closes with the treatise's gravest warning: act only on advantage, never on anger — moods pass, but a destroyed state and the dead never return.
- What this chapter says
- Key lines
- Applied today
- Related stratagems
- Chapters that share ground with this one
What this chapter says
On the surface this is a practical chapter on the five ways to attack with fire and the conditions for using it — the right seasons, dry weather, and favourable wind — together with how to follow up a fire attack and never let it burn without exploiting it. But the chapter's lasting importance lies in its closing passage, which rises far above fire tactics into the moral core of the whole treatise. A ruler must never mobilise an army merely to gratify his anger, nor a general give battle out of pique. Anger can in time turn back to gladness, and vexation to content — but a kingdom once destroyed can never exist again, and the dead can never be brought back to life. Therefore the enlightened ruler is prudent and the good general full of caution. It is Sun Tzu's clearest statement that strategy must be governed by cold calculation of interest, never by passion.
Key lines
From 十一家注孫子, the Eleven Commentators edition. The Chinese is verbatim from that text; the English beneath each is ours.
- 曹操 不得以己之喜怒而用兵也。 You may not send an army on your own pleasure or temper.
- 賈林 慍怒內作，不顧安危，固不可也。 To let vexation and anger work within, with no regard for safety or danger, is simply not permissible.
- 杜佑 人主聚衆興軍，以道理勝負之計，不可以己之私怒。將舉兵，則以策，不可以慍恚之故而合戰也。 When a ruler gathers a host and raises an army, he settles the reckoning of victory and defeat by reason, not by his own private anger. When a general takes up arms he does so by plan, and must not join battle out of resentment.
- 梅堯臣 兵以義動，無以怒興；戰以利勝，無以慍敗。 Arms move by right, not raised by anger; battles are won by advantage, not lost through vexation.
- 張預 不可因己之喜怒而用兵，當顧利害所在。《尉繚子》曰︰「兵起非可以忿也。見勝則興，不見勝則止。」 One must not use troops out of one's own gladness or anger, but should look to where the gain and harm lie. The Wei Liaozi says: 'The raising of arms is not a thing for indignation. See the victory and act; do not see it and stop.'
- 王晳 不可但以怒也，若息侯伐鄭。 Anger alone is not a reason — as with the Marquis of Xi attacking Zheng.
- 張預 因怒興師，不亡者鮮。若息侯與鄭伯有違言而伐鄭，君子是以知息之將亡。 Few who raise an army out of anger escape ruin. As when the Marquis of Xi had words with the Earl of Zheng and attacked Zheng, and the gentleman knew from it that Xi would fall.
- 王晳 不可但以慍也，若晉趙穿。 One must not act on mere vexation — as with Zhao Chuan of Jin.
- 張預 因忿而戰，罕有不敗。若姚襄怒符黃眉壓壘而陳，因出戰，爲黃眉所敗是也。怒大於慍，故以主言之；慍小於怒，故以將言之。君則可以興兵，將則止可言戰。 Few who fight out of resentment fail to be beaten. As when Yao Xiang, angered that Fu Huangmei had drawn up close against his works, came out to fight and was beaten by him. Anger is greater than vexation, hence it is said of the ruler; vexation is smaller than anger, hence it is said of the general. The ruler may raise an army; the general may only give battle.
- 杜牧 亡國者，非能亡人之國也，言不度德、不量力，因怒興師，因慍合戰，則其兵自死，其國自亡者也。 'A ruined state' does not mean one able to ruin another's state; it means that he who does not measure his virtue or weigh his strength, but raises an army out of anger and joins battle out of vexation, has his troops die of themselves and his state fall of itself.
- 杜佑 凡主怒興軍伐人，無素謀明計，則破亡矣。將慍怒而鬬，倉卒而合戰，所傷殺必多。怒慍復可以悅喜，言亡國不可復存、死者不可復生者，言當慎之。 Whenever a ruler in anger gathers a host to attack another without settled plan or clear reckoning, he is broken and ruined. When a general fights in vexation and joins battle in haste, the killed and wounded are certain to be many. Anger and vexation may turn back to gladness; but to say a ruined state cannot be restored and the dead cannot be brought to life is to say one should be careful.
- 梅堯臣 一時之怒，可返而喜也；一時之慍，可返而悅也。國亡軍死，不可復已。 A moment's anger may turn back to gladness; a moment's vexation may turn back to pleasure. A state ruined and an army dead cannot be undone.
- 王晳 喜怒無常，則威信去矣。 Where gladness and anger are inconstant, awe and trust are gone.
- 張預 君因怒而興兵，則國必亡；將因慍而輕戰，則士必死。 A ruler who raises an army out of anger loses the state; a general who fights lightly out of pique loses his men.
Applied today
Never make a major, irreversible move — a lawsuit, an acquisition, a mass layoff, a public feud — out of anger or wounded pride. The mood will pass in a week; some decisions can never be undone. Sleep on anything you can't reverse.
Act on clear advantage and real gain, not on the heat of the moment. Feelings are poor guides for choices that can't be reversed — check the interest, not the impulse, before you commit.