Pagina 240 de 266

[This is repeated from XI. § 17. Here I feel convinced that it is

an interpolation, for it is evident that § 20 ought to follow

immediately on § 18.]

20. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be

succeeded by content.

21. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come

again into being;

[The Wu State was destined to be a melancholy example of this

saying.]

nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

22. Hence the enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general

full of caution. This is the way to keep a country at peace and

an army intact.

[1] "Unless you enter the tiger's lair, you cannot get hold of

the tiger's cubs."

Chapter XIII. THE USE OF SPIES

1. Sun Tzŭ said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and

marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people

and a drain on the resources of the State. The daily expenditure

will amount to a thousand ounces of silver.

[Cf. II. §§ 1, 13, 14.]