And so the superior military

Critical Text

Yinqueshan Text

。。。其下攻城

Shiyijia zhu Text

故上兵伐謀其次伐交其次伐兵其下攻城

Translation

And so the superior military cuts down strategy. Its inferior cuts down alliances. Its inferior cuts down the military. The worst attacks walled cities.

Annotations

This passage proceeds from least to most concrete, from conceptualizations to relationships to armed forces to mud-walled towns. It does not argue, for example, that one should not attack another掇 army. It simply notes a preference for attacking strategy or alliances. Indeed, the text even discusses the circumstances of attacking cities. This appears in the following section.