Military art and science -- Early works to 1800; War -- Early works to 1800
4. TU YU (died 812) did not publish a separate commentary on Sun Tzŭ,
his notes being taken from the _T’ung Tien_, the encyclopedic treatise
on the Constitution which was his life-work. They are largely
repetitions of Ts’ao Kung and Meng Shih, besides which it is believed
that he drew on the ancient commentaries of Wang Ling and others. Owing
to the peculiar arrangement of _T’ung Tien_, he has to explain each
passage on its merits, apart from the context, and sometimes his own
explanation does not agree with that of Ts’ao Kung, whom he always
quotes first. Though not strictly to be reckoned as one of the "Ten
Commentators," he was added to their number by Chi T’ien-pao, being
wrongly placed after his grandson Tu Mu.
5. TU MU (803-852) is perhaps the best known as a poet—a bright star
even in the glorious galaxy of the T’ang period. We learn from Ch’ao
Kung-wu that although he had no practical experience of war, he was
extremely fond of discussing the subject, and was moreover well read in
the military history of the _Ch’un Ch’iu_ and _Chan Kuo_ eras. His
notes, therefore, are well worth attention. They are very copious, and
replete with historical parallels. The gist of Sun Tzŭ’s work is thus
summarized by him: "Practice benevolence and justice, but on the other
hand make full use of artifice and measures of expediency." He further
declared that all the military triumphs and disasters of the thousand
years which had elapsed since Sun Tzŭ’s death would, upon examination,
be found to uphold and corroborate, in every particular, the maxims
contained in his book. Tu Mu’s somewhat spiteful charge against Ts’ao
Kung has already been considered elsewhere.
6. CH’EN HAO appears to have been a contemporary of Tu Mu. Ch’ao
Kung-wu says that he was impelled to write a new commentary on Sun Tzŭ
because Ts’ao Kung’s on the one hand was too obscure and subtle, and
that of Tu Mu on the other too long-winded and diffuse. Ou-yang Hsiu,
writing in the middle of the 11th century, calls Ts’ao Kung, Tu Mu and
Ch’en Hao the three chief commentators on Sun Tzŭ, and observes that
Ch’en Hao is continually attacking Tu Mu’s shortcomings. His
commentary, though not lacking in merit, must rank below those of his
predecessors.
7. CHIA LIN is known to have lived under the T’ang dynasty, for his
commentary on Sun Tzŭ is mentioned in the _T’ang Shu_ and was
afterwards republished by Chi Hsieh of the same dynasty together with
those of Meng Shih and Tu Yu. It is of somewhat scanty texture, and in
point of quality, too, perhaps the least valuable of the eleven.
8. MEI YAO-CH’EN (1002-1060), commonly known by his "style" as Mei
Sheng-yu, was, like Tu Mu, a poet of distinction. His commentary was
published with a laudatory preface by the great Ou-yang Hsiu, from
which we may cull the following:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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