Therefore base it in the five

Critical Text

Yinqueshan Text

故輕之以五，效之以計，以索亓請，以索亓請

Shiyijia zhu Text

故經之以五事，校之以計，而索其情

Translation

Therefore base it in the five and evaluate it by means of the appraisals, and so seek out its circumstances.

Annotations

"Base" translates jing 經, glossed variously in the traditional commentaries as ben 本 and ji 基 (or, alternatively, as zhi 治). "The five" refers to the immediately following five factors, "the [seven] appraisals" to the succeeding section. Whereas the received texts add the word shi 事, "matters," after "five," the Yinqueshan text omits it and is supported in this by a Tongdian 通典 gloss. Shi seems to have entered the received texts through its appearance in the Sunzi's earliest surviving and most prestigious commentary, that of Cao Cao 曹操 (155-220), victor in the post-Han struggle for dominance over all China.