Sunzi · Art of War · 形篇
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Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
不可勝在己，可勝在敵
Being impossible to defeat lies with oneself; the possibility of defeating the enemy lies with the enemy.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
64 Han characters · 26 distinct forms · 14 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
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- Test one unit.
昔之善戰者，
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 8 written forms in this passage
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Watch recurrence: 可 × 10 勝 × 9 不 × 6 者 × 4 之 × 3 為 × 3. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
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1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
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3 · Explain, then revisit
Which side of the situation is presented as within one's own control?
Compare the editorial answer
Making oneself resistant to defeat.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 不可勝在己，可勝在敵
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Read this beside…
Each connection states its purpose. Comparisons are editorial learning aids; shared wording alone does not prove influence.
Argument contrastLocate the limit before pursuing the aimSunzi distinguishes securing oneself from making an enemy vulnerable; Zhuangzi contrasts bounded life with unbounded knowing. This is an editorial juxtaposition about limits, not evidence of direct textual dependence or identical practical conclusions.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
荀子 · 賦篇第二十六而不可為行遠疾速而不可託訊（者與）？往來惽憊而不可為固塞者歟？暴至殺傷而不億忌者歟？功被天下而不私置者歟？託地而游宇，友風而子雨。冬日作
孟子 · 離婁上故善戰者故善戰者服上刑，連諸侯者次之，辟草萊、任土地者次之。」
孫子 · 形篇故善戰者古之所謂善戰者，勝於易勝者也。故善戰者之勝也，無智名，無勇功，故其戰勝不忒。不忒者，其所措必勝，勝已敗者也。故善戰者，立於
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Recover what the text leaves unstated本立而道生論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading巧言令色，鮮矣仁論語 · Recover what the text leaves unstated吾日三省吾身論語 · Recover what the text leaves unstated行有餘力，則以學文Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 孫子 · Sunzi · Art of War
- Attribution
- Traditionally attributed to Sun Wu; the date and formation of the received text are debated.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR3b0003 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR3b0003_004.txt, lines 11–25.
- Version
96402eede8bde255fef03e02377448bbcf20a248- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: 4c62d239fe44d98f98995dd3ad2e70abf419ea3caefa92da7ae8232710328469. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.