Sun Tzu: To mobilize one hundred thousand troops and march a thousand li brings heavy expenses for people and the state, costing a thousand pieces of gold each day. The whole nation is disturbed, and seven hundred thousand households are hindered from work.
Both sides may stand deadlocked for years for a single day’s victory. To grudge ranks, rewards and gold while ignoring the enemy’s situation is the height of unkindness. Such men are unfit to be generals, assistants to rulers, or masters of victory.
Wise rulers and able generals win constantly and achieve extraordinary feats because they gain foreknowledge. This knowledge cannot be obtained from ghosts and gods, analogies or astrological calculations. It must come from people who spy out the enemy’s true conditions.
Note
Large campaigns drain national wealth and disrupt civilians. Skimping on spy funds to ignore enemy intelligence is reckless. Reliable foreknowledge for victory comes from human scouts, not superstition or divination.
A great military strategist and thinker in ancient China, who lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period. He authored The Art of War, the world’s earliest and most influential military classic. His strategic thoughts have been widely applied in military, politics and management worldwide.
War cost
Large-scale wars bring huge economic and social burdens.
Foreknowledge
Accurate intelligence is the key to victory.
Reject superstition
Intelligence depends on human investigation rather than divination.
孫子曰：凡興師十萬，出征千里，百姓之費，公家之奉，日費千金，內外騷動，怠于道路，不得操事者，七十萬家，相守數年，以爭一日之勝，而愛爵祿百金，不知敵之情者，不仁之至也，非人之將也，非主之佐也，非勝之主也。故明君賢將，所以動而勝人，成功出于眾者，先知也；先知者，不可取于鬼神，不可象于事，不可驗于度；必取于人，知敵之情者也。
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