22. 先知迂直之計者勝此軍爭之法也
He will conquer who has learnt the artifice of deviation.
See supra, [§§ 3, 4].
Such is the art of manœuvring.
With these words, the chapter would naturally come to an end. But there now follows a long appendix in the shape of an extract from an earlier book on War, now lost, but apparently extant at the time when Sun Tzŭ wrote. The style of this fragment is not noticeably different from that of Sun Tzŭ himself, but no commentator raises a doubt as to its genuineness.
23. 軍政曰言不相聞故爲金鼓視不相見故爲旌旗
The Book of Army Management says:
It is perhaps significant that none of the earlier commentators give us any information about this work. Mei Yao-ch‘ên calls it 軍之舊典 “an ancient military classic,” and Wang Hsi, 古軍書 “an old book on war.” Considering the enormous amount of fighting that had gone on for centuries before Sun Tzŭ’s time between the various kingdoms and principalities of China, it is not in itself improbable that a collection of military maxims should have been made and written down at some earlier period.
On the field of battle,
Implied, though not actually in the Chinese.