These two paragraphs are extremely valuable as evidence of
the date of composition.  They assign the work to the period of
the struggle between Wu and Yueh.  So much has been observed by
Pi I-hsun.  But what has hitherto escaped notice is that they
also seriously impair the credibility of Ssu-ma Ch`ien's
narrative.  As we have seen above, the first positive date given
in connection with Sun Wu is 512 B.C.  He is then spoken of as a
general,  acting as confidential adviser to Ho Lu, so that his
alleged introduction to that monarch had already taken place, and
of course the 13 chapters must have been written earlier still.
But at that time, and for several years after, down to the
capture of Ying in 506, Ch`u and not Yueh, was the great
hereditary enemy of Wu.  The two states, Ch`u and Wu, had been
constantly at war for over half a century, [31] whereas the first
war between Wu and Yueh was waged only in 510, [32] and even then
was no more than a short interlude sandwiched in the midst of the
fierce struggle with Ch`u.  Now Ch`u is not mentioned in the 13
chapters at all.  The natural inference is that they were written
at a time when Yueh had become the prime antagonist of Wu, that
is, after Ch`u had suffered the great humiliation of 506.  At
this point, a table of dates may be found useful.

B.C. |
     |
514  |  Accession of Ho Lu.
512  |  Ho Lu attacks Ch`u, but is dissuaded from entering Ying,
     |    the capital.  SHI CHI mentions Sun Wu as general.
511  |  Another attack on Ch`u.
510  |  Wu makes a successful attack on Yueh.  This is the first
     |    war between the two states.
509  |
 or  |  Ch`u invades Wu, but is signally defeated at Yu-chang.
508  |
506  |  Ho Lu attacks Ch`u with the aid of T`ang and Ts`ai.
     |    Decisive battle of Po-chu, and capture of Ying.  Last
     |    mention of Sun Wu in SHIH CHI.
505  |  Yueh makes a raid on Wu in the absence of its army.  Wu
     |    is beaten by Ch`in and evacuates Ying.
504  |  Ho Lu sends Fu Ch`ai to attack Ch`u.
497  |  Kou Chien becomes King of Yueh.
496  |  Wu attacks Yueh, but is defeated by Kou Chien at Tsui-li.
     |    Ho Lu is killed.
494  |  Fu Ch`ai defeats Kou Chien in the great battle of Fu-
     |    chaio, and enters the capital of Yueh.
485  |
 or  |  Kou Chien renders homage to Wu.  Death of Wu Tzu-hsu.
484  |
482  |  Kou Chien invades Wu in the absence of Fu Ch`ai.
478  |
 to  |  Further attacks by Yueh on Wu.
476  |
475  |  Kou Chien lays siege to the capital of Wu.
473  |  Final defeat and extinction of Wu.

     The sentence quoted above from VI. ss. 21 hardly strikes me
as one that could have been written in the full flush of victory.
It seems rather to imply that, for the moment at least, the tide
had turned against Wu, and that she was getting the worst of the
struggle.  Hence we may conclude that our treatise was not in
existence in 505, before which date Yueh does not appear to have
scored any notable success against Wu.  Ho Lu died in 496,  so
that if the book was written for him, it must have been during
the period 505-496, when there was a lull in the hostilities,  Wu
having presumably exhausted by its supreme effort against Ch`u.
On the other hand, if we choose to disregard the tradition
connecting Sun Wu's name with Ho Lu, it might equally well have
seen the light between 496 and 494, or possibly in the period
482-473, when Yueh was once again becoming a very serious menace.
[33]  We may feel fairly certain that the author, whoever he may
have been, was not a man of any great eminence in his own day.
On this point the negative testimony of the TSO CHUAN far
outweighs any shred of authority still attaching to the SHIH CHI,
if once its other facts are discredited.  Sun Hsing-yen, however,
makes a feeble attempt to explain the omission of his name from
the great commentary.  It was Wu Tzu-hsu, he says, who got all
the credit of Sun Wu's exploits, because the latter  (being an
alien) was not rewarded with an office in the State.
     How then did the Sun Tzu legend originate?  It may be that
the growing celebrity of the book imparted by degrees a kind of
factitious renown to its author.  It was felt to be only right
and proper that one so well versed in the science of war should
have solid achievements to his credit as well.  Now the capture
of Ying was undoubtedly the greatest feat of arms in Ho Lu's
reign;  it made a deep and lasting impression on all the
surrounding states, and raised Wu to the short-lived zenith of
her power.  Hence, what more natural, as time went on, than that
the acknowledged master of strategy, Sun Wu, should be popularly
identified with that campaign, at first perhaps only in the sense
that his brain conceived and planned it; afterwards, that it was
actually carried out by him in conjunction with Wu Yuan, [34]  Po
P`ei and Fu Kai?
     It is obvious that any attempt to reconstruct even the
outline of Sun Tzu's life must be based almost wholly on
conjecture.  With this necessary proviso, I should say that he
probably entered the service of Wu about the time of Ho Lu's
accession,  and gathered experience, though only in the capacity
of a subordinate officer, during the intense military activity
which marked the first half of the prince's reign. [35]   If he
rose to be a general at all, he certainly was never on an equal