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[With these words, the chapter would naturally come to an end.

But there now follows a long appendix in the shape of an extract

from an earlier book on War, now lost, but apparently extant at

the time when Sun Tzŭ wrote. The style of this fragment is not

noticeably different from that of Sun Tzŭ himself, but no

commentator raises a doubt as to its genuineness.]

23. The Book of Army Management says:

[It is perhaps significant that none of the earlier commentators

give us any information about this work. Mei Yao- Ch'en calls it

"an ancient military classic," and Wang Hsi, "an old book on

war." Considering the enormous amount of fighting that had gone

on for centuries before Sun Tzŭ's time between the various

kingdoms and principalities of China, it is not in itself

improbable that a collection of military maxims should have been

made and written down at some earlier period.]

On the field of battle,

[Implied, though not actually in the Chinese.]