12 The Attack By Fire - 13 The Use of Spies (The Art of War)

01XII.

02THE ATTACK BY FIRE Sun Tzu said, There are five ways of attacking with fire.

03The first is to burn soldiers in their camp.

04The second is to burn stores.

05The third is to burn baggage trains.

06The fourth is to burn arsenals and magazines.

07The fifth is to hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy.

08In order to carry out an attack, we must have means available.

09The material for raising fire should always be kept in readiness.

10There is a proper season for making attacks with fire, and special days for starting a conflagration.

11The proper season is when the weather is very dry.

12The special days are those when the moon is in the constellations of the sieve, the wall, the wing, or the crossbar, for these four are all days of rising wind.

13In attacking with fire, one should be prepared to meet five possible developments.

141.

15When fire breaks out inside to enemy's camp, respond at once with an attack from without.

162.

17If there is an outbreak of fire, but the enemy's soldiers remain quiet, bide your time and do not attack.

183.

19When the force of the flames has reached its height, follow it up with an attack, if that is practicable.

20If not, stay where you are.

214.

22If it is possible to make an assault with fire from without, do not wait for it to break out within, but deliver your attack at a favorable moment.

235.

24When you start a fire, be too windward of it.

25Do not attack from the leeward.

266.

27A wind that rises in the daytime lasts long, but a night breeze soon falls.

28In every army, the five developments connected with fire must be known, the movements of the stars calculated, and a watch kept for the proper days.

29Hence, those who use fire as an aid to the attack show intelligence.

30Those who use water as an aid to the attack gain an accession of strength.

31By means of water, an enemy may be intercepted, but not robbed of all his belongings.

32Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is a waste of time and general stagnation.

33Hence the saying, the enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead.

34The good general cultivates his resources.

35Move not unless you see an advantage.

36Use not your troops unless there is something to be gained.

37Fight not unless the position is critical.

38No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen.

39No general should fight a battle simply out of peak.

40If it is to your advantage, make a forward move.

41If not, stay where you are.

42Anger may in time change to gladness.

43Vexation may be succeeded by content.

44But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being, nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

45Hence the enlightened ruler is heedful and the good general full of caution.

46This is the way to keep a country at peace and an army intact.

47End of Part 12 Part 13 The Use of Spies Sun Tzu said, Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the state.

48The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver.

49There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.

50As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor.

51Hostile armies may feast each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day.

52This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's conditions simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments is the height of inhumanity.

53One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his sovereign, no master of victory.

54Thus what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

55Now, this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits.

56It cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.

57Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.

58Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes.

59One, local spies.

60Two, inward spies.

61Three, converted spies.

62Four, doomed spies.

63Five, surviving spies.

64When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system.

65This is called divine manipulation of the threads.

66It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.

67Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.

68Having inward spies, making use of officials of the enemy.

69Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.

70Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.

71Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.

72Hence it is that which, none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies.

73None should be more liberally rewarded.

74In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.

75Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.

76They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.

77Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.

78Be subtle, be subtle, and use your spies for every kind of business.

79If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death, together with the man to whom the secret was told.

80Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm a city, or to assassinate an individual, it is always necessary to begin by finding out the names of the attendants, the aides-de-camp, and doorkeepers and sentries of the general in command.

81Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.

82The enemy's spies, who have come to spy on us, must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away, and comfortably housed.

83Thus they will become converted spies and available for our service.

84It is through the information brought by the converted spy that we are able to acquire and employ local and inward spies.

85It is owing to this information again that we can cause the doomed spy to carry false tidings to the enemy.

86Lastly, it is by this information that the surviving spy can be used on appointed occasions.

87The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy, and this knowledge can only be derived in the first instance from the converted spy.

88Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.

89Of old, the rise of the Yin dynasty was due to Yi Qi, who had served under the Xia.

90Likewise, the rise of the Chu dynasty was due to Lu Ya, who had served under the Yin.

91Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.

92Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.

93End of the Art of War Recorded in Toronto, Ontario by Moira Fogarty October 2006 2006 End of the Art of War