The Hidden Use of Arms
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用兵有言，吾不敢為主而為客，不敢進寸而退尺。是謂行無行，攘無臂，仍無敵，執無兵。禍莫大於輕敵，輕敵幾喪吾寶。故抗兵相加，哀者勝矣。
For using troops there is a saying: I do not dare to be the host, and I act as the guest; I do not dare to advance an inch, and I pull back a foot. This is called marching with no ranks, rolling up a sleeve with no arm, pressing on with no enemy, gripping with no weapon. No calamity is greater than making light of the enemy; making light of the enemy, I nearly lose my treasure. So when armies rise against each other and clash, the side that grieves wins.
A soldier's paradox: the side that grieves, not the side that swaggers, wins the fight.
To be the “guest” is to respond and never strike first. Taken all the way, that produces a strange kind of warfare, fought with ranks, arms and weapons that are not there, and the side that wins is the grieving one, the one that never wanted the fight.
This text’s word for “pressing on” is gentler than the more familiar version’s “to yank, to drag by force”, the same crux chapter 38 raised with the same two characters. Heshang Gong reads the “treasure” put at risk by underestimating an enemy as one’s very life, not the three treasures chapter 67 just named.
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