plexing passages in Sun Tzu.
Ts`ao Kung says: "Rewards for good service should not be
deferred a single day." And Tu Mu: "If you do not take
opportunity to advance and reward the deserving, your
subordinates will not carry out your commands, and disaster will
ensue." For several reasons, however, and in spite of the
formidable array of scholars on the other side, I prefer the
interpretation suggested by Mei Yao-ch`en alone, whose words I
will quote: "Those who want to make sure of succeeding in their
battles and assaults must seize the favorable moments when they
come and not shrink on occasion from heroic measures: that is to
say, they must resort to such means of attack of fire, water and
the like. What they must not do, and what will prove fatal, is
to sit still and simply hold to the advantages they have got."]

16. Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans
well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.

[Tu Mu quotes the following from the SAN LUEH, ch. 2: "The
warlike prince controls his soldiers by his authority, kits them
together by good faith, and by rewards makes them serviceable.
If faith decays, there will be disruption; if rewards are
deficient, commands will not be respected."]

17. Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your
troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless
the position is critical.

[Sun Tzu may at times appear to be over-cautious, but he
never goes so far in that direction as the remarkable passage in
the TAO TE CHING, ch. 69. "I dare not take the initiative, but
prefer to act on the defensive; I dare not advance an inch, but
prefer to retreat a foot."]

18. No ruler should put troops into the field merely to
gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply
out of pique.
19. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if
not, stay where you are.

[This is repeated from XI. ss. 17. Here I feel convinced
that it is an interpolation, for it is evident that ss. 20 ought
to follow immediately on ss. 18.]

20. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be
succeeded by content.
21. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never
come again into being;

[The Wu State was destined to be a melancholy example of
this saying.]

nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.
22. Hence the enlightened ruler is heed