Rewards in War

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

1.5

Word count: 187 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

When city walls are high and moats deep, and arrows and stones rain down, soldiers who vie to climb first and press forward into the clash of blades must be spurred by lavish rewards; then no enemy is unconquerable. As the military classics say: Under lavish reward there will surely be men of valor.

Editor's review

Shang Zhan is a compact ancient military text on spurring soldiers to press forward in siege warfare, proposing lavish reward as the way to summon courage and closing with the maxim that under lavish reward there will surely be men of valor. Brief as it is, it points to a direct link between incentive and fighting power; the language is plain and forceful, and the imagery of high walls, deep moats, falling arrows and stones, and clashing blades grounds an abstract principle in a concrete battlefield. The 2024 Bashu Publishing House edition gives readers convenient access to the original text. The piece serves as an accessible entry point to ancient military thinking on incentives and can be read alongside other chapters in the same volume to compare how reward and punishment are applied differently in statecraft and in battle. Readers should note that its context is battlefield motivation and should not apply it simplistically to everyday management; a critical eye yields more.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in ancient military texts and military thought
Readers who enjoy short classical Chinese texts and want to build experience in reading them
Readers in team motivation and organizational management curious about traditional approaches

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic modern military theory textbooks
Readers uninterested in short classical Chinese texts who prefer long-form narrative

Reading tips

First grasp the argumentative link between lavish reward and men of valor, then return to the opening battlefield description to see how it serves that argument.
Copy out the sentences describing the siege scene and reflect on how ancient military texts use concrete situations to explain abstract principles.
After reading, consider the limits of lavish reward as an incentive and try to list situations in real life where it might fail.
Read it alongside Shang Xing to compare the different emphases on reward in statecraft and in battle.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
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FAQ

Is 'under lavish reward there will surely be men of valor' the core argument of the whole text?

It can be seen as the text's summarizing statement. The preceding passage first sets out that soldiers pressing forward in a siege need incentive, then cites a Legalist saying to show that lavish reward can summon courage; the two parts echo each other and form a complete chain of argument.

Is this text suitable for direct use in modern team management?

It should not be copied wholesale. The original context is the life-and-death setting of the battlefield, and lavish reward targets the special situation of charging into battle. Motivation in modern organizations involves complex factors such as fairness and long-term motivation; its emphasis on incentive can be drawn on, but it must be examined in light of specific conditions.

Is such a short piece worth reading on its own?

Yes. Its brevity makes it suitable for close reading, analyzing the argument structure and word choice sentence by sentence; it also works well as comparative reading material. Short does not mean uninformative; what matters is whether one reads with questions and connects it to other texts.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.