Sunzi · Art of War · 勢篇
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Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
奇正相生，如循環之無端，孰能窮之？
The extraordinary and the regular generate one another, like a circle without an endpoint; who could exhaust them?
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
64 Han characters · 37 distinct forms · 15 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
味不過五，
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
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 之 × 6 不 × 4 也 × 4 奇 × 3 正 × 3 味 × 2. 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
Make this passage yours.
Use the reading guide above, build your interpretation, then test what you can recover. Your notes and schedule stay on this device.
1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
Select a source unit, then hide the passage and reconstruct it. This checks textual recall, not understanding.
3 · Explain, then revisit
What does 相 add to 生?
Compare the editorial answer
Reciprocity: each mode gives rise to the other.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 奇正相生，如循環之無端，孰能窮之？
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Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
荀子 · 王制篇第九環之無端類行雜，以一行萬，始則終，終則始，若環之無端也，舍是而天下以衰矣。
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Recover the object學而時習之論語 · Recover the object未之有也論語 · Recover the object雖曰未學，吾必謂之學矣論語 · Identify a comparison and its standard未若貧而樂道，富而好禮者也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_005.txt, lines 44–58. SUN 5.3 tr. Giles 1910: 36-37. See Guo Huaruo 1962: 69-70; Wu Jiulong 1991: 73-75; Li Ling 1997: 63, tr. Ames 1993: 119-120; tr. Sawyer 1993: 165
- 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: ab3f7acee42bb20400e3e7b1b2e12c5bf99bf4c1c8eacf88b7b59d460ba34536. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.