地形
Terrain shapes tactics, but defeat is usually the general's fault, not fate. Know the ground and both armies; care for your soldiers like your own children — and do right whether or not it wins you credit.
- What this chapter says
- Key lines
- Applied today
- Related stratagems
- Chapters that share ground with this one
What this chapter says
This chapter surveys the six kinds of terrain — accessible, entangling, temporising, narrow passes, precipitous heights, and positions far from the enemy — and how each should shape where and whether to fight. It then makes a striking claim about responsibility: defeat is often not the work of Heaven but the fault of the general. Six ways an army can be ruined — flight, insubordination, collapse, downfall, disorganisation, and rout — arise not from natural disaster but from the commander's own errors of judgement. The remedy is knowledge: know the ground, know the enemy and yourself, and add knowledge of Heaven and Earth (timing and terrain), and victory becomes complete. On command, one of the treatise's warmest notes: regard your soldiers as your own beloved children and they will stand by you unto death — but kindness without authority spoils them into uselessness. The ideal general advances without craving fame and retreats without fearing blame, thinking only of protecting his people.
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.
- 張預 曉攻守之術，則有勝而無危。 Understand the arts of attack and defence and there is victory without peril.
- 李筌 人事、天時、地利，三者同知，則百戰百勝。 Human affairs, the season of heaven, the advantage of ground — know all three together and it is a hundred battles and a hundred victories.
- 杜佑 知地之便，知天之時。地之便，依險阻、向高陽也；天之時，順寒暑、法刑德也。旣能知彼知己，又按地形、法天道，勝乃可全，又何難也？ Know the ground's favour and the sky's timing: the ground by holding the defiles and facing the high sunlit side; the sky by following cold and heat and the rule of punishment and reward. Knowing the enemy and yourself, and reading the ground and the way of heaven besides, the victory can be made whole — and where is the difficulty then?
- 梅堯臣 知彼利，知此利，故不危；知天時，知地形，故不極。 Know their advantage and your own, and you are not endangered; know the season and the ground, and there is no end to it.
- 張預 順天時，得地利，取勝無極。 Follow the season of heaven and gain the advantage of ground, and the taking of victory has no limit.
- 李筌 若撫之如此，得其死力也。故楚子一言，三軍之士皆如挾纊也。 Treat them so and you have their strength to the death. Hence one word from the Viscount of Chu, and the men of the three armies felt as though wrapped in silk padding.
- 杜牧 戰國時，吳起爲將，與士卒最下者同衣食，卧不設席，行不乘騎，親裹贏糧，與士卒分勞苦。卒有病疽，吳起吮之，其卒母聞而哭之。或問曰︰「子，卒也，而將軍自吮疽，何爲而哭？」母曰︰「往年，吳公吮其父，其父不旋踵而死於敵；今復吮此子，妾不知其死所矣！」 The Wu Qi anecdote: he shared the food and clothing of his lowest soldiers, carried his own rations, and sucked the pus from a man's ulcer. The soldier's mother wept — Wu Qi had done the same for the father, who then died facing the enemy without turning his heel, and she did not know where the son would die.summary, not a translation
- 梅堯臣 撫而育之，則親而不離；愛而勗之，則信而不疑。故雖死與死，雖危與危。 Comfort and rear them and they are close and will not leave; love and encourage them and they trust and do not doubt. So they will die where you die and risk where you risk.
- 王晳 以仁恩結人心也。 Bind men's hearts by kindness and favour.
- 何氏 如後漢段熲爲破羌將軍以征西羌，行軍仁愛，士卒傷者，親自瞻省，手爲裹瘡。在邊十餘年，未嘗一日蓐寢，與將士同苦，故皆樂爲死戰也。晉王濬爲巴郡太守，郡邊吳境，兵士苦役，生男多不舉。濬乃嚴其科條，寬其徭課，其産育者皆與休復，所全活者數千人。及後伐吳，先在巴郡之所全活者，皆堪徭役供軍。其父母戒之曰︰「王府君生爾，爾必勉之，無愛死也。」故《吳子》有父子之兵。 Illustrated with Duan Jiong, who in more than ten years on the frontier never slept a night at ease, visiting and bandaging the wounded himself; and with Wang Jun of Ba commandery, who eased the corvée so that families raised their sons, and found years later that the men he had kept alive were the ones who served in his campaign against Wu.summary, not a translation
- 張預 將視卒如子，則卒視將如父；未有父在危難，而子不致死。故荀卿曰︰「臣之於君也，下之於上也，如子弟之事父兄、手足之捍頭目也。」夫美酒泛流，三軍皆醉；溫言一撫，士同挾纊。信乎，以恩遇下，古人所重也。故《兵法》曰︰「勤勞之師，將必先己。暑不張蓋，寒不重衣，險必下步，軍井成而後飲，軍食熟而後飯，軍壘成而後舍。」 If a general looks on his men as sons, they look on him as a father, and no son holds back when his father is in danger. He quotes Xunzi on subject to ruler as limbs guarding the head, then the Art of War on the commander sharing every hardship — no canopy in heat, no doubled coat in cold, dismounting on hard ground, drinking only after the wells are dug, eating only after the men are fed.summary, not a translation
- 王晳 皆忠以爲國也。 In both cases it is loyalty, for the sake of the state.
- 何氏 進豈求名也？見利於國家、士民，則進也；退豈避罪也？見其蹙國殘民之害，雖君命使進，而不進，罪及其身不悔也。 Advance for fame? No — advance when the state and its people gain by it. Retreat to dodge blame? No — retreat when he sees the harm of a shrunken state and a broken people; and though the ruler's order be to advance, he does not advance, and does not repent it though the blame fall on himself.
Applied today
Results are largely the leader's responsibility, not bad luck — most failures trace to preventable errors of judgement, not fate. Own that, and you can fix the cause instead of blaming the weather.
Care for your people as your own, paired with real standards — warmth without authority breeds a team you can't direct. And do the right thing whether or not it earns you credit or risks blame; that integrity is what makes a leader trusted.