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[This is one of the most perplexing passages in Sun Tzŭ. Ts'ao

Kung says: "Rewards for good service should not be deferred a

single day." And Tu Mu: "If you do not take opportunity to

advance and reward the deserving, your subordinates will not

carry out your commands, and disaster will ensue." For several

reasons, however, and in spite of the formidable array of

scholars on the other side, I prefer the interpretation suggested

by Mei Yao-ch'en alone, whose words I will quote: "Those who want

to make sure of succeeding in their battles and assaults must

seize the favourable moments when they come and not shrink on

occasion from heroic measures: that is to say, they must resort

to such means of attack of fire, water and the like. What they

must not do, and what will prove fatal, is to sit still and

simply hold to the advantages they have got."]

16. Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well

ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.