12
Incendiary Attacks
“There are five types of incendiary attack: The first is to incinerate men, the second to incinerate provisions, the third to incinerate supply trains, the fourth to incinerate armories, and the fifth to incinerate formations.
“Implementing an incendiary attack depends on the proper conditions. Equipment for incendiary attack should be fully prepared before required. Launching an incendiary attack has its appropriate seasons, igniting the fire the proper days. As for the seasons, it is the time of the dry spell; as for the day, when the moon is in chi, pi, i, or chen. When it is in these four lunar lodges, these are days the wind will arise.
“In general, in incendiary warfare you must respond to the five changes of fire:
“If fires are started within their camp, then you should immediately respond with an attack from outside.
“If fires are ignited but their army remains quiet, then wait; do not attack.
“When they flare into a conflagration, if you can follow up, then do so; if you cannot, then desist.
“If the attack can be launched from outside without relying on inside assistance, initiate it at an appropriate time.
“If fires are ignited upwind, do not attack downwind.
“Winds that arise in the daytime will persist; those that arise at night will stop.
“Now the army must know the five changes of fire in order to defend against them at the astrologically appropriate times. Thus using fire to aid an attack is enlightened, using water to assist an attack is powerful. Water can be used to sever, but cannot be employed to seize.
“Now if someone is victorious in battle and succeeds in attack but does not exploit the achievement, it is disastrous, and his fate should be termed ‘wasteful and tarrying.’ Thus it is said the wise general ponders it, the good general cultivates it.
“If it is not advantageous, do not move. If objectives cannot be attained, do not employ the army. Unless endangered do not engage in warfare. The ruler cannot mobilize the army out of personal anger. The general cannot engage in battle because of personal frustration. When it is advantageous, move; when not advantageous, stop. Anger can revert to happiness, annoyance can revert to joy, but a vanquished state cannot be revived, the dead cannot be brought back to life.
“Thus the enlightened ruler is cautious about it, the good general respectful of it. This is the Tao for bringing security to the state and preserving the army intact.”
COMMENTARY
Incendiary attacks were much used throughout Chinese history to assault limited objectives, such as fortified towns and protected encampments, but saw less application against field armies even though flames could easily disrupt a large force moving across the dry, normally windblown northern plains. Military writers constantly warned commanders to position themselves upwind and avoid heavily vegetated terrain, conversely advocating their exploitation to launch incendiary attacks whenever enemies encamp or establish fortified positions in deliberate ignorance of them. (The Warring States text known as the Six Secret Teachings accordingly devotes a chapter to the methods for mounting incendiary defenses, including lighting backfires and preparing burned-over sections of terrain before encamping.) Suntzu’s chapter outlines the essentials for incendiary attacks, no doubt on the understanding that fire, being highly aggressive and nearly impossible to extinguish once sufficiently vigorous, proves immensely disruptive as well as destructive, thereby creating the conditions for effective attacks. Incendiary attacks may thus also be conceived metaphorically, not just limited to actual combustion or arson, but understood abstractly as characterizing any volatile threat—apart from chemical or germ warfare—that may spread insidiously, such as rumor and innuendo. Broadly construed, incendiary attacks encompass anything that sows fire and discord within the enemy’s camp, resulting in combustion (whether physical or abstract) and the need to mount urgent, massive efforts to contain and extinguish. While hardly to be advocated, everyone should be aware of their nature and potential in order to consciously contemplate possible defensive measures.
The chapter concludes with two important paragraphs, much cited in military writings and political discussions thereafter. The next to last paragraph emphasizes the importance of immediately exploiting every victory; otherwise the enemy may regroup and hard-won gains will be lost. In short, when you obtain an advantage, through conquest or otherwise, it should be relentlessly pursued, thereby wresting the ultimate objective—victory—at minimum cost. The last paragraph then reiterates the Art of War’s opening theme that warfare is a great affair, one that should be undertaken only after careful analytical pondering, augmented with a cautionary admonition that it should not be initiated out of a desire to avenge insults, anger, or other shortsighted emotional causes. While equally important today, whether for national policy or personal behavior, throughout history his advice has rarely been heeded.