MENG SHIH. The commentary which has come down to us under this name is
comparatively meager, and nothing about the author is known. Even his personal
name has not been recorded. Chi T’ien-pao’s edition places him after Chia
Lin, and Ch’ao Kung-wu also assigns him to the T’ang dynasty, [41]
but this is a mistake. In Sun Hsing-yen’s preface, he appears as Meng Shih of
the Liang dynasty [502-557]. Others would identify him with Meng K’ang of
the 3rd century. He is named in one work as the last of the "Five
Commentators," the others being Wei Wu Ti, Tu Mu, Ch’en Hao and Chia Lin.
LI CH’UAN of the 8th century was a well-known writer on military
tactics. One of his works has been in constant use down to the present day. The
T’ung Chih mentions "Lives of famous generals from the Chou to the
T’ang dynasty" as written by him. [42] According to Ch’ao Kung-wu
and the T’ien-i-ko catalogue, he followed a variant of the text of Sun
Tzŭ which differs considerably from those now extant. His notes are mostly
short and to the point, and he frequently illustrates his remarks by anecdotes
from Chinese history.
TU YU (died 812) did not publish a separate commentary on Sun Tzŭ, his notes
being taken from the T’ung Tien, the encyclopedic treatise on the
Constitution which was his life-work. They are largely repetitions of
Ts’ao Kung and Meng Shih, besides which it is believed that he drew on
the ancient commentaries of Wang Ling and others. Owing to the peculiar
arrangement of T’ung Tien, he has to explain each passage on its merits,
apart from the context, and sometimes his own explanation does not agree with
that of Ts’ao Kung, whom he always quotes first. Though not strictly to
be reckoned as one of the "Ten Commentators," he was added to their number by
Chi T’ien-pao, being wrongly placed after his grandson Tu Mu.