even when their forces were united, they managed to keep them in disorder.
Mei Yao-ch‘ên’s note makes the sense plain: 或已離而不能合或雖合而不能齊. All these clauses, of course, down to 不齊, are dependent on 使 in [§ 15].
17. 合於利而動不合於利而止
When it was to their advantage, they made a forward move; when otherwise, they stopped still.
Mei Yao-ch‘ên connects this with the foregoing: 然能使敵若此當須有利則動無利則止 “Having succeeded in thus dislocating the enemy, they would push forward in order to secure any advantage to be gained; if there was no advantage to be gained, they would remain where they were.”
18. 敢問敵衆整而將來待之若何曰先奪其所愛則聽矣
If asked how to cope with a great host of the enemy in orderly array and on the point of marching to the attack,
敢問 is like 或問, introducing a supposed question.
I should say: “Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.”
Opinions differ as to what Sun Tzŭ had in mind. Ts‘ao Kung thinks it is 其所恃之利 “some strategical advantage on which the enemy is depending.” Tu Mu says: 據我便地畧我田野利其糧道斯三者敵人之所愛惜倚恃者也 “The three things which an enemy is anxious to do, and on the accomplishment of which his success depends, are: (1) to capture our favourable positions; (2) to ravage our cultivated land; (3) to guard his own communications.” Our object then must be to thwart his plans in these three directions and thus render him helpless. [Cf. [III. § 3].] But this exegesis unduly strains the meaning of 奪 and 愛, and I agree with Ch‘ên Hao, who says that 所愛 does not refer only to strategical advantages, but is any person or thing that may happen to be of importance to the enemy. By boldly seizing the initiative in this way, you at once throw the other side on the defensive.