;

And so the wise general

Critical Text

故	智	將	務	食	於
gu	zhi	jiang	wu	shi	yu
so	wise	general	service	food	from

敵	食	敵	一	鐘	當
di	shi	di	yi	zhong	dang
enemy	food	enemy	one	bushel	equal

吾	二	十	鐘	其	杆
wu	er	shi	zhong	qi	gan
my	two	ten	bushel	their	fodder

一	石	當	吾	二	十	石
yi	shi	dang	wu	er	shi	shi
one	bale	equal	my	two	ten	bale

Yinqueshan Text

。。。謧

Shiyijia zhu Text

故智將務食於敵食敵一鐘當吾二十鐘其杆一謧當吾二十謧

Translation

And so the wise general looks to the enemy for food. One bushel of enemy food equals twenty bushels of mine. One bale of fodder equals twenty bales of mine.

Annotations

For a discussion of zhong 鐘, "bushel," relative to early systems of dry-measure, see Zuozhuan, Duke Zhao, year 1.

This and the subsequent four sections of text all begin with gu, "and so." As Robin Yates has argued, these "soft gu" indicate seams within the text, where sections have been stitched together, rather than the more forceful "therefore" that gu sometimes implies (see "New Light on Ancient Chinese Military Texts," T'oung Pao 74 [1988], p. 219).