17. Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength. [In order to make the translation intelligible, it is necessary to tone down the sharply paradoxical form of the original. Ts’ao Kung throws out a hint of the meaning in his brief note: "These things all serve to destroy formation and conceal one’s condition." But Tu Mu is the first to put it quite plainly: "If you wish to feign confusion in order to lure the enemy on, you must first have perfect discipline; if you wish to display timidity in order to entrap the enemy, you must have extreme courage; if you wish to parade your weakness in order to make the enemy over-confident, you must have exceeding strength."] 18. Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision; [See _supra_, § 1.] concealing courage under a show of timidity presupposes a fund of latent energy; [The commentators strongly understand a certain Chinese word here differently than anywhere else in this chapter. Thus Tu Mu says: "seeing that we are favourably circumstanced and yet make no move, the enemy will believe that we are really afraid."] masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions. [Chang Yu relates the following anecdote of Kao Tsu, the first Han Emperor: “Wishing to crush the Hsiung-nu, he sent out spies to report on their condition. But the Hsiung-nu, forewarned, carefully concealed all their able-bodied men and well-fed horses, and only allowed infirm soldiers and emaciated cattle to be seen. The result was that spies one and all recommended the Emperor to deliver his attack. Lou Ching alone opposed them, saying: ‘When two countries go to war, they are naturally inclined to make an ostentatious display of their strength. Yet our spies have seen nothing but old age and infirmity. This is surely some _ruse_ on the part of the enemy, and it would be unwise for us to attack.’ The Emperor, however, disregarding this advice, fell into the trap and found himself surrounded at Po-teng.”] 19. Thus one who is skilful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act.