Soldiers who hear clumsy speed do not see the time of cleverness."

Considering the sentence "An army hears clumsiness and speed, but does not see the length of skill" in "The Art of War: Combat Chapter", it is not true that Few readers find it difficult to understand.

Cao Cao commented on this sentence: "Although you are clumsy, you can win quickly." If you haven’t seen it, say it doesn’t exist. "Du Mu's note: "Although he is poor at wit, his speed is the best. "(see above "Song Dynasty's Notes on Sun Zi") pointed out that "clumsy" refers to the commander's "wit". It is believed that although the commander is not smart enough, he can act quickly and win. Zhang Jingyang's "Miscellaneous Poems": "Skillful and slow are not worthy of praise, but clumsiness and speed are worthy of reputation" (see "Selected Works"). His understanding of Sun Tzu's words is the same as that of Cao Cao and others. However, there are also those who disagree with it, and Yu? of the Qing Dynasty should be the representative. He said: "Long-term construction will lead to clumsiness, and speed will lead to skill. "It means that there is no problem that clumsiness can lead to speed, and skill can lead to longevity. Since it is clumsy, it must be long; since it is skillful, it must be speed. It is impossible to be clumsy with wit and seek divine speed. Therefore, "clumsy speed" "Explained as "failure due to excessive speed".

Does "skillful" necessarily determine speed, and "clumsy" necessarily determines "long"? Such an absolute judgment cannot be made.

Clumsy , means clumsy, which is the opposite of skill, and should not be interpreted as failure in ancient Chinese. Qiao has two levels of content: skill and dexterity in "Zhou Li·Kao Gong Ji Preface", which means "work has skill". The most important thing is skill; in "The Art of War: Nine Places" by Sun Tzu, "skill can accomplish things" refers to ingenuity, which means that people's skill can be divided into big and small. clumsy. "This kind of clumsiness seems to be clumsy, but it is actually a skill, a big skill. On the contrary, some skill is small. From a big perspective, this kind of small skill is sometimes just clumsy. "Mozi Lu Wen" said: "Gongshuzi thinks he is clever. "The "qiao" here refers to skill, which is a kind of cleverness. Mozi believed that using such cleverness as the basis for launching a war is clumsy and unwise. We sometimes say that someone is smart, but Not smart also means that he is good at small things but clumsy at big things. In this way, being clumsy does not mean that he cannot be fast, and being clumsy is not necessarily impossible.

There are two pairs of interrelated categories that should be noted: one is cunning, and the other is speed. Skillfulness is the subjective factor of the commander, and speed is the objective effect of the military action. These two pairs of categories can intersect with each other. There are four situations: skillful speed, skillful time, clumsy speed, and clumsy time. Among these four situations, the most ideal is undoubtedly skillful speed, and the worst is of course clumsy time. It is easy for people to choose between the two. The most difficult choice is between clumsy speed and clumsy speed. It was after comparing these two situations that Sun Tzu made the decision to prefer clumsy speed to clumsy speed. This is because, in his opinion, "A long-lasting military force will benefit the country, but it is not possible." Therefore, even if a long-term military force is clever, it is not advisable; but "speed" can often make up for the shortcomings of "clumsy" and achieve the effect of surprising and unprepared attacks. The purpose of this statement is to emphasize the important role of speed in the victory or defeat of the war. Therefore, we say that Cao Cao and Du Mu's comments are correct, but they are not made absolute. .

However, it should be admitted that Sun Tzu’s view is reasonable but not comprehensive. Sun Tzu believed that “every time a hundred thousand troops are mobilized to march thousands of miles, the expense of the people and the support of the public will cost thousands of gold a day, causing commotion both internally and externally.” "There are seven hundred thousand families who are not allowed to interfere with the roads" ("Yongjian Chapter"). The war is protracted and the country cannot bear it, so it should be resolved quickly. This is reasonable. It is not comprehensive because he only sees "long" We have not seen the benefits of "prolonged". We have not seen that this "protracted" is not only harmful to me, but also harmful to the enemy. We have not seen that when this "protracted" causes more harm to the enemy than to ourselves. It is a benefit to me when it is harmful. It can be seen that it is one-sided to adopt an absolutely exclusive attitude towards "Jiu". Li Shimin and Li Jingjunchen of the Tang Dynasty saw this mystery and proposed it theoretically. The strategic thoughts of "using long-term disadvantages" ① and "avoiding their sharpness and enduring them" ② In the Ming Dynasty, Yu Dayou wrote "Zhuo Sujie", which believed that after the world was unified, war should be fought openly, with ten sieges and five attacks, and strive to be "perfect." "Painting" should pay attention to skill and not be too late. I don't completely agree with Sun Tzu. In modern times, Li Hongzhang and others have raised durability to the level of strategy. The status of "lasting" has been improved a lot from Sun Tzu. Later, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward the strategic and tactical thinking of protracted strategy and quick decision in battles, thus dialectically unifying protracted and quick decisions. Their discussions on the issue of protracted and quick decisions reflected people's deepening understanding of the laws of war.