And so the general who knows

Critical Text

Yinqueshan Text

。。。

Shiyijia zhu Text

故 知 兵 之 將 蟙 蟥 之 司 命 國 家 安 危 之 主 也

Translation

And so the general who knows the military is the people's fate star, the ruler of the state's security and danger.

Annotations

This reading is attested to by Han, Tang and Song sources. The Shiyijia zhu, however, has the verb sheng 生, "give birth to," after "the general," making the sentence "the general who knows the military gives birth to the people掇 fate star." We follow the shorter, blunter text.