A victorious military

Critical Text

Yinqueshan Text--A

勝兵如以鎰稱朱敗兵如以朱稱鎰稱勝者戰民也如決積。。。

Yinqueshan Text--B

勝兵如以鎰稱朱敗兵如以朱稱鎰稱勝者戰民也如決積。。。仞之溪刑也

Shiyijia zhu Text

故勝兵若以鎰稱銖敗兵若以銖稱鎰貙者之戰民也若決積水于千仞之溪者形也

Translation

A victorious military is like weighing a hundredweight against a grain. A defeated military is like weighing a grain against a hundredweight. One who weighs victory sets the people to battle like releasing amassed water into a gorge one thousand ren deep. This is form.

Annotations

One thousand ren are about one mile.

"This is form," but actually it is more like shi 勢, the subject of the next chapter (and a term for which we cannot find a single English equivalent, since it includes both the static and dynamic aspects of power). Chapter 6 discusses shi from several points of view but concludes with an image strikingly similar to this one: the rolling of rocks down a mountain one thousand ren high. Thus, though "form" is in certain instances an entirely distinct concept, here it blends inextricably with its companion shi.