Chapter 13: The Use of Spies - Page 2

years. The
only way to get this information is to employ spies, and it is
impossible to obtain trustworthy spies unless they are properly
paid for their services. But it is surely false economy to
grudge a comparatively trifling amount for this purpose, when
every day that the war lasts eats up an incalculably greater sum.
This grievous burden falls on the shoulders of the poor, and
hence Sun Tzu concludes that to neglect the use of spies is
nothing less than a crime against humanity.]

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

[This idea, that the true object of war is peace, has its
root in the national temperament of the Chinese. Even so far
back as 597 B.C., these memorable words were uttered by Prince
Chuang of the Ch'u State: "The [Chinese] character for 'prowess'
is made up of [the characters for] 'to stay' and 'a spear'
(cessation of hostilities). Military prowess is seen in the
repression of cruelty, the calling in of weapons, the
preservation of the appointment of Heaven, the firm establishment
of merit, the bestowal of happiness on the people, putting
harmony between the princes, the diffusion of wealth."]

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

[That is, knowledge of the enemy's dispositions, and what he
means to do.]

5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits;
it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,

[Tu Mu's note is: "[knowledge of the enemy] cannot be
gained by reasoning from other analogous cases."]

nor by any deductive calculation.

[Li Ch'uan says: "Quantities like length, breadth,
distance and magnitude, are susceptible of exact mathematical
determination; human actions cannot be so calculated."]

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

[Mei Yao-ch'en has rather an interesting note: "Knowledge
of the spirit-world is to be obtained by divination; information
in natural science may be sought by inductive reasoning; the laws
of the universe can be verified by mathematical calculation: but
the dispositions of an enemy are ascertainable through spies and
spies alone."]

7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes:
(1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4)
doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.
8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can
discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation
of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.

[Cromwell, one of the greatest and most practical of all