Pagina 97 de 266

[Li Ch'uan and Tu Mu, with extraordinary inability to see a

metaphor, take these words quite literally of food and drink that

have been poisoned by the enemy. Ch'en Hao and Chang Yu carefully

point out that the saying has a wider application.]

Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

[The commentators explain this rather singular piece of advice by

saying that a man whose heart is set on returning home will fight

to the death against any attempt to bar his way, and is therefore

too dangerous an opponent to be tackled. Chang Yu quotes the

words of Han Hsin: "Invincible is the soldier who hath his desire

and returneth homewards." A marvelous tale is told of Ts'ao

Ts'ao's courage and resource in ch. 1 of the San Kuo Chi, In 198

A.D., he was besieging Chang Hsiu in Jang, when Liu Piao sent

reinforcements with a view to cutting off Ts'ao's retreat. The

latter was obliged to draw off his troops, only to find himself

hemmed in between two enemies, who were guarding each outlet of a

narrow pass in which he had engaged himself. In this desperate

plight Ts'ao waited until nightfall, when he bored a tunnel into

the mountain side and laid an ambush in it.