rrangement, moreover, is so awkward that I cannot help
suspecting some corruption in the text. It never seems to occur
to Chinese commentators that an emendation may be necessary for
the sense, and we get no help from them there. The Chinese words
Sun Tzu used to indicate the cause of the people's impoverishment
clearly have reference to some system by which the husbandmen
sent their contributions of corn to the army direct. But why
should it fall on them to maintain an army in this way, except
because the State or Government is too poor to do so?]

11. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes
prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's substance to
be drained away.

[Wang Hsi says high prices occur before the army has left
its own territory. Ts`ao Kung understands it of an army that has
already crossed the frontier.]

12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry
will be afflicted by heavy exactions.
13, 14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion of
strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare, and
three-tenths of their income will be dissipated;

[Tu Mu and Wang Hsi agree that the people are not mulcted
not of 3/10, but of 7/10, of their income. But this is hardly to
be extracted from our text. Ho Shih has a characteristic tag:
"The PEOPLE being regarded as the essential part of the State,
and FOOD as the people's heaven, is it not right that those in
authority should value and be careful of both?"]

while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses,
breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields,
protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons, will amount to
four-tenths of its total revenue.
15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the
enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to
twenty of one's own, and likewise a single PICUL of his provender
is equivalent to twenty from one's own store.

[Because twenty cartloads will be consumed in the process of
transporting one cartload to the front. A PICUL is a unit of
measure equal to 133.3 pounds (65.5 kilograms).]

16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused
to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy,
they must have their rewards.

[Tu Mu says: "Rewards are necessary in order to make the
soldiers see the advantage of beating the enemy; thus, when you
cap