| | Liang Huiwang asked Wei Liaozi, "I have heard that the Yellow Emperor had Xingde, which enabled him to win a hundred battles out of a hundred. Is there such a thing?" Wei Liaozi said, "Not quite. What the Yellow Emperor called Xingde meant using punishment to attack and virtue to defend; it was not what people in later generations referred to as Xingde." What people in later generations called Xingde refers to the heavenly officials, auspicious days and hours, and considerations of yin-yang orientation. The Yellow Emperor was concerned only with human affairs. Why do I say this? Suppose there is a city here; if we attack it from the east or west, we cannot capture it. If we attack it from the north or south, we still cannot capture it. In these four directions, could it be that we are not following an auspicious time or taking advantage of favorable conditions? Yet if it cannot be captured, why is that? It is because the city walls are high and the moats deep, the military equipment is fully prepared, and there is strategy in its defense. If, however, the city walls are low and the moats shallow, and the defenders are weak, then it can be captured. From this we can see that heavenly officials and auspicious days are not as important as human affairs.
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| | Therefore, according to the arrangements of Xingde and heavenly officials: forming a formation with one's back to water is called an isolated position; forming a formation facing a slope is considered a doomed army. When King Wu attacked Zhou, he had his back to the Ji River and faced a mountain slope, with 12,000 men attacking Zhou's forces of 80 million. He cut off Zhou's head and displayed it on a white flag. Was Zhou not following the heavenly official formations? Yet why did he fail to win? Because human affairs were not properly managed. The Yellow Emperor said, "First examining one's own wisdom is called the heavenly official." From this we can see, it is only about human affairs.
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