with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li,
2.78 modern li go to a mile. The length may have varied slightly since Sun Tzŭ’s time.
the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armour, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day.
則, which follows 糧 in the textus receptus, is important as indicating the apodosis. In the text adopted by Capt. Calthrop it is omitted, so that he is led to give this meaningless translation of the opening sentence: “Now the requirements of War are such that we need 1,000 chariots,” etc. The second 費, which is redundant, is omitted in the Yü Lan. 千金, like 千里 above, is meant to suggest a large but indefinite number. As the Chinese have never possessed gold coins, it is incorrect to translate it “1000 pieces of gold.”
Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.
Capt. Calthrop adds: “You have the instruments of victory,” which he seems to get from the first five characters of the next sentence.
2. 其用戰也勝久則鈍兵挫銳攻城則力屈
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, the men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardour will be damped.
The Yü Lan omits 勝; but though 勝久 is certainly a bold phrase, it is more likely to be right than not. Both in this place and in [§ 4], the T‘ung Tien and Yü Lan read 頓 (in the sense of “to injure”) instead of 鈍.
If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.