biography were false and untrustworthy? The answer, I fear, must be in the negative. There is still one grave, if not fatal, objection to the chronology involved in the story as told in the Shih Chi , which, so far as I am aware, nobody has yet pointed out. There are two passages in Sun Tzǔ in which he alludes to contemporary affairs. The first is in VI :⁠—

Though according to my estimate the soldiers of

Yüeh

exceed our own in number, that shall advantage them nothing in the matter of victory. I say then that victory can be achieved.