What is a li?
A li is a Chinese measurement for distance. From records, it’s been deduced to being a little less than a mile. Therefore, a thousand li (as found in Chapter Two) would be several hundred miles. As far as strategy is concerned, you can say a li equals a mile. [Back] [Top] Sun Tzu beheaded a king’s favorite concubine to get the attention of the rest. I cannot find this story in your Sun Tzu. We don’t have this story in our translation because it’s not in the The Art of War. The story is actually in Ssu-ma Chien’s “Shih Chi,” mentioning Sun Tzu and this particular disciplinary action. “The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yueh” also tells this story except it states Sun Tzu was a native of Wu (not Chi). Sun Tzu training 180 court women to march like soldiers is quite an interesting incident, and thus is often inserted in many Sun Tzu books. Be advised some scholars view the story as apocryphal.
