13 The Use of Spies - The Art of War - Lao Tzu

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter thirteen, the use of spies. Sun Zou said, raising
a host of one hundred thousand men and marching them
great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a
drain on the resources of the state. The daily expenditure
will amount to a thousand ounces of silver. There will

(00:21):
be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop
down exhausted on the highways. As many as seven hundred
thousand families will be impeded in their labor. Hostile armies
may face each other for years, striving for victory, which
is decided in a single day. This being so, to

(00:43):
remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one
begrudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in
honors and emollients is the height of inhumanity. One who
acts thus is no leader of men, no present help
to his sovereign, no master of victory. Thus, what enables

(01:03):
the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and
conquer and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men
is four knowledge. Now, this four knowledge cannot be elicited
from spirits. It cannot be obtained inductively from experience, and
are by any deductive calculation. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions

(01:25):
can only be obtained from other men. Hence the use
of spies, of whom there are five classes. One local spies,
two inward spies, three converted spies, four doomed spies, five
surviving spies. When these five kinds of spy are all

(01:47):
at work, none can discover the secret system. This is
called divine manipulation of the threads. It is the sovereign's
most precious faculty. Having local spies means employing the services
of the inhabitants of a district, Having inward spies, making
use of officials of the enemy, having converted spies, getting

(02:11):
hold of the enemy spies and using them for our purposes.
Having doomed spies doing certain things openly for purposes of deception,
and allowing our spies to know of them and report
them to the enemy. Surviving spies, finally, are those who
bring back news from the enemy's camp. Hence, it is

(02:34):
that none in the whole army are more intimate relations
to be maintained than with spies. None should be more
liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.
Spies cannot be usefully employed without certain intuitive sagacity. They
cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness. Without subtle

(02:59):
ingenuity of mine, one cannot make certain of the truth
of their reports. Be subtle, Be subtle, and use your
spies for every kind of business. If a secret piece
of news is divulged by a spy before the time
is ripe, he must be put to death, together with
the man to whom the secret was told. Whenever the

(03:22):
object be to crush an army, to storm a city,
or to assassinate an individual, it is always necessary to
begin by finding out the names of the attendants, the
aides de camp, and door keepers, and centuries of the
general in command. Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.

(03:43):
The enemy spies who have come to spy on us
must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away, and
comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted spies and available
for our service. It is through the information brought by
the converted spy that we are able to acquire and
employ local and inward spies. It is owing to his

(04:07):
information again, that we can cause the doomed spy to
carry false tidings to the enemy. Lastly, it is by
his information that the surviving spy can be used on
appointed occasions. The end and aim of spying in all
its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy, and this

(04:29):
knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance from
the converted spy. Hence, it is essential that the converted
spy be treated with the utmost liberality of old. The
rise of the Yin dynasty was due to Ai Ching,
who had served under Hisha. Likewise, the rise of the
Chu dynasty was due to lu Yah, who had served

(04:53):
under the Inn. Hence, it is only the enlightened ruler
in the wise general who will use use the highest
intelligence of the army for purposes of spying, and thereby
they achieve great results. Spies are the most important element
in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.

(05:17):
End of Chapter thirteen.