Key terms in The Art of War

The first of the five constant factors: the bond that makes a people follow its ruler without fear of death.

Night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons — the calendar and the weather of a campaign.

Distance, danger, open ground and narrow pass: the shape of the country an army must cross.

Wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness — the five qualities Sun Tzu asks of a general.

The marshalling of the army into ranks and units, the care of the roads, and the keeping of supplies.

The reckoning made before the campaign begins; Chapter 1 is built on it.

The war council held before the army marches. The side that counts more is the side Sun Tzu expects to win.

Deception is not a trick added to war; in Sun Tzu it is the operating principle of it.

The visible shape an army takes. Chapter 4 argues that the best shape is the one that cannot be defeated.

Not strength held in reserve but strength released: the crossbow bent and then the trigger let go.

Two modes of force that alternate. The orthodox engages the enemy; the extraordinary decides the battle.

The art of being full where the enemy is empty, and empty where he brings his weight to bear.

If the enemy cannot see your shape, he cannot prepare against you — the argument at the centre of Chapter 6.

The longer road, taken early enough, becomes the shorter one.

The general who follows the rule for its own sake will be beaten by circumstances.

Ground classified by what it does to the men standing on it, from dispersive ground to desperate ground.

Five things to burn, and one condition: the blaze must never be lit by anger.

Foreknowledge is the one advantage that cannot be calculated; it has to be bought from people.

Local, inward, converted, doomed and surviving spies — with the converted spy as the pivot of them all.

What is known before it happens. Sun Tzu insists it comes from men, not from spirits or from calculation.

The most quoted line in the book, and the conclusion of Chapter 3.

The standard against which every other stratagem in the book is measured.

A snake of the Ch'ang mountains that answers an attack on the head with its tail and an attack on the tail with its head — Sun Tzu's image of a coordinated army.

Without guides, natural advantages cannot be turned to account, however well the ground is known.

An army without its baggage is lost, however brave its soldiers.