War unfolds on nine types of ground—each defined by position and psychology—and effective strategy begins by correctly identifying and classifying them.

By Sun Tzu, from L'Art de la guerre

Key Arguments

  • He enumerates nine varieties, tying each to operational realities and risks faced by armies.
  • Definitions specify both geography and campaign depth (home vs. hostile territory) and the implications for movement and supply.
  • Certain grounds (e.g., ‘hemmed-in’ and ‘desperate’) are defined by constraints that deterministically shape viable courses of action.

Source Quotes

The Nine Situations 1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground: (1) Dispersive ground; (2) facile ground; (3) contentious ground; (4) open ground; (5) ground of intersecting highways; (6) serious ground; (7) difficult ground; (8) hemmed-in ground; (9) desperate ground. 2.
2. When a chieftain is fighting in his own territory, it is dispersive ground. 3.
7. When an army has penetrated into the heart of a hostile country, leaving a number of fortified cities in its rear, it is serious ground. 8.
9. Ground which is reached through narrow gorges, and from which we can only retire by tortuous paths, so that a small number of the enemy would suffice to crush a large body of our men: this is hemmed in ground. 10.
10. Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay, is desperate ground. 11.

Key Concepts

  • The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground: (1) Dispersive ground; (2) facile ground; (3) contentious ground; (4) open ground; (5) ground of intersecting highways; (6) serious ground; (7) difficult ground; (8) hemmed-in ground; (9) desperate ground.
  • When a chieftain is fighting in his own territory, it is dispersive ground.
  • When an army has penetrated into the heart of a hostile country, leaving a number of fortified cities in its rear, it is serious ground.
  • Ground which is reached through narrow gorges, and from which we can only retire by tortuous paths, so that a small number of the enemy would suffice to crush a large body of our men: this is hemmed in ground.
  • Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay, is desperate ground.

Context

xi. The Nine Situations (lines 715–871) — taxonomy and definitions of the nine grounds