Page:Sun Tzu on The art of war.djvu/17

Rh Ch‘u with 200,000 is that the latter were undisciplined.”

Têng Ming-shih in his (completed in 1134) informs us that the surname  was bestowed on Sun Wu’s grandfather by  Duke Ching of Ch‘i [547–490 B.C.]. Sun Wu’s father Sun P‘ing, rose to be a Minister of State in Ch‘i, and Sun Wu himself, whose style was  Ch‘ang-ch‘ing, fled to Wu on account of the rebellion which was being fomented by the kindred of  T‘ien Pao. He had three sons, of whom the second, named Ming, was the father of Sun Pin. According to this account, then, Pin was the grandson of Wu, which, considering that Sun Pin’s victory over Wei was gained in 341 B.C., may be dismissed as chronologically impossible. Whence these data were obtained by Têng Ming-shih I do not know, but of course no reliance whatever can be placed in them.

An interesting document which has survived from the close of the Han period is the short preface written by the great Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, or  Wei Wu Ti, for his edition of Sun Tzŭ. I shall give it in full: —