;

When one employs battle

Critical Text

其	用	戰	勝	久	則	頓
qi	yong	zhan	sheng	jiu	ze	dun
one's	use	battle	victory	long	then	blunt

兵	挫	銳	攻	城	則	力
bing	cuo	rui	gong	cheng	ze	li
military	grind	sharp	attack	cities	then	strength

屈	久	暴	師	則
qu	jiu	bao	shi	zhe
diminished	long	in-field	soldiers	then

國	用	不	足
guo	yong	bu	zu
state	resource	not	enough

Yinqueshan Text

。。。用戰勝久則頓。。。

Shiyijia zhu Text

其用戰也勝久則鈍兵挫銳攻城則力屈久暴師則國用不足

Translation

When one employs battle, if victory takes long, it blunts the military and grinds down its sharpness. Attacking walled cities, one's strength is diminished. If soldiers are long in the field, the state's resources are insufficient.

Annotations

The received texts contain a "ye" 也 after the first three words of this passage (qi yong zhan). This has led to confusions as to where to break the line--before the sheng or after. The Yinqueshan text, omitting the ye, facilitates the former.