صفحة 13 من 266

[This concise and difficult sentence is not well explained by any

of the commentators. Ts'ao Kung, Li Ch'uan, Meng Shih, Tu Yu, Tu

Mu and Mei Yao-ch'en have notes to the effect that a general,

though naturally stupid, may nevertheless conquer through sheer

force of rapidity. Ho Shih says: "Haste may be stupid, but at any

rate it saves expenditure of energy and treasure; protracted

operations may be very clever, but they bring calamity in their

train." Wang Hsi evades the difficulty by remarking: "Lengthy

operations mean an army growing old, wealth being expended, an

empty exchequer and distress among the people; true cleverness

insures against the occurrence of such calamities." Chang Yu

says: "So long as victory can be attained, stupid haste is

preferable to clever dilatoriness." Now Sun Tzŭ says nothing

whatever, except possibly by implication, about ill-considered

haste being better than ingenious but lengthy operations.