Sunday, November 15, 2009

XIII. THE USE OF SPIES

SUN TZU ON THE ART OF WAR

THE OLDEST MILITARY TREATISE IN THE WORLD

孫子兵法

Translated from the Chinese

By LIONEL GILES, M.A. (1910)

XIII. THE USE OF SPIES


 1. Sun Tzu said:  Raising a host of a hundred thousand
    men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss
    on the people and a drain on the resources of the State. 
    The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces
    of silver.  There will be commotion at home and abroad,
    and men will drop down exhausted on the highways. 
    As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded
    in their labor.
 
 2. Hostile armies may face each other for years,
    striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. 
    This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's
    condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred
    ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height
    of inhumanity.
 
 3. One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present
    help to his sovereign, no master of victory.
 
 4. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good
    general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond
    the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
 
 5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits;
    it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,
    nor by any deductive calculation.
 
 6. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only
    be obtained from other men.
 
 7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: 
    (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies;
    (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.
 
 8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work,
    none can discover the secret system.  This is called "divine
    manipulation of the threads."  It is the sovereign's
    most precious faculty.
 
 9. Having local spies means employing the services
    of the inhabitants of a district.
 
10. Having inward spies, making use of officials
    of the enemy.
 
11. Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's
    spies and using them for our own purposes.
 
12. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly
    for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know
    of them and report them to the enemy.
 
13. Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring
    back news from the enemy's camp.
 
14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are
    more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. 
    None should be more liberally rewarded.  In no other
    business should greater secrecy be preserved.
 
15. Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain
    intuitive sagacity.
 
16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence
    and straightforwardness.
 
17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make
    certain of the truth of their reports.
 
18. Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every
    kind of business.
 
19. If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy
    before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together
    with the man to whom the secret was told.
 
20. Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm
    a city, or to assassinate an individual, it is always
    necessary to begin by finding out the names of the attendants,
    the aides-de-camp, and door-keepers and sentries of the general
    in command.  Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.
 
21. The enemy's spies who have come to spy on us
    must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and
    comfortably housed.  Thus they will become converted
    spies and available for our service.
 
22. It is through the information brought by the
    converted spy that we are able to acquire and employ
    local and inward spies.
 
23. It is owing to his information, again, that we can
    cause the doomed spy to carry false tidings to the enemy.
 
24. Lastly, it is by his information that the surviving
    spy can be used on appointed occasions.
 
25. The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties
    is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only
    be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy. 
    Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated
    with the utmost liberality.
 
26. Of old, the rise of the Yin dynasty was due to I
    Chih who had served under the Hsia.  Likewise, the rise
    of the Chou dynasty was due to Lu Ya who had served
    under the Yin.
 
27. Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the
    wise general who will use the highest intelligence of
    the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve
    great results.  Spies are a most important element in water,
    because on them depends an army's ability to move.


[END - Sun Tzu on the Art of War, text-only]

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