;

And so one skilled

Critical Text

故	善	用	兵	者	屈
gu	shan	yong	bing	zhe	qu
thus	good	employ	military	one-who	subdue

人	之	兵	而	非	戰
ren	zhi	bing	er	fei	zhan
people	's	military	and	not	battle

也	拔	人	之	城	而
ye	ba	ren	zhi	cheng	er
(period)	uproot	people	's	city	and

非	攻	也	毀	人	之
fei	gong	ye	hui	ren	zhi
not	attack	(period)	destroy	people	's

國	而	非	久	也	必
guo	er	fei	jiu	ye	bi
state	and	not	long	(period)	must

以	全	爭	於	天	下
yi	quan	zheng	yu	tian	xia
take	whole	contend	in	heaven	below

故	兵	不	頓	而	利
gu	bing	bu	dun	er	li
thus	military	not	blunt	and	advantage

可	全	此	謀	攻	之
ke	quan	ci	mou	gong	zhi
can	complete	this	strategy	attack	's

法	也
fa	ye
method	(period)

Yinqueshan Text

故善用兵者屈人之兵而非戰也拔人之城而非攻也毀人之國而非。。。天下故。。。而利可。。。

Shiyijia zhu Text

故善用兵者屈人之兵而非戰也拔人之城而非攻也毀人之國而非久也必以全爭於天下故兵不頓而利可全此謀攻之法也

Translation

And so one skilled at employing the military. Subdues the other's military but does not do battle, uproots the other's walled city but does not attack, destroys the other's state but does not prolong. One must take it whole when contending for all-under-heaven. Thus the military is not blunted and advantage can be whole. This is the method of the strategy of attack.

Annotations

This passage summarizes the chapter to this point. It is possible that in an early stage of the Sunzi compilation project, this "Mougong" set of materials ended here. The subsequent section begins "The method of employing the military," the same phrase that opens the present chapter (and also chapters 2, 7 and 8), lending credence to this hypothesis. By contrast to the unusually focused first part of this chapter, the following sections are of mixed nature. As well, all of them begin with a gu or a fu 夫, indicating that they have disparate origins and have been assembled in this location.