“穷寇勿追”小考

On "Not Pursuing the Beaten Enemy" or "Not Approaching the Hard-Pressed Enemy"?

从"穷寇"含义、早期有关的军事思想和具体战例等考察,"穷寇勿追"这一军事观念原初的正确表述形式应该是"穷寇勿迫"。"迫"之所以误作"追",主要是由于汉代隶定后两字形近的缘故。

Combining the original meaning with the examination and analysis of the early military thought and some actual battle cases, we have reached the conclusion that the correct expressive form of this military sense should be ＂Not Approaching the Hard-Pressed Enemy＂ rather than ＂Not Pursuing the Beaten Enemy＂. The reason why the Chinese character ＂迫 （approaching）＂ is mistaken for ＂追（pursuing）＂ is that the two Chinese characters ＂迫＂and ＂追＂were very similar in morphology in the official script of the Han Dynasty.