pression, they are scarcely intelligible and stand no less

in need of a commentary than the text itself.1 As we have seen, Ts‘ao Kung is the reputed author of the g, a book on war in 100,000 odd words, now lost, but mentioned in the fig 2

2, 1% fi Méng Shih. The commentary which has come down to us under this name is comparatively meagre, and nothing about the author is known. Even his personal name has not been recorded. Chi T‘ien-pao’s edition places him after Chia Lin, and g; 4} Ch‘ao Kung-wu also assigns him to the T‘ang dynasty,3 but this is obviously a mistake, as his work is mentioned in the FE} g ,H In Sun Hsing-yen’s preface, he appears as Méng Shih of the Liang .dynasty [502—557]. Others would identify him with "$11 a Meng K‘ang of the 3rd century. In the 5]“: i if: i ii, 4 he is named last of the Eli ‘g‘g‘ “Five Commentators,” the others being Wei Wu Ti, Tu Mu, Ch‘én Hao and Chia Lin.

3. Li Ch‘iian of the 8th century was a well- known writer on military tactics. His jg a has

been in constant use down to _the present day. The jg fig mentions ffl % fl (lives of famous generals from the Chou to the T‘ang dynasty) as written by him. 5 He is also generally supposed to be the real author of the popular Taoist tract, the [32 According to Ch‘ao Kung-wu and the T‘z’en-ééo catalogue,6 he followed the jg Z, fl?! text of Sun Tzfi, which differs considerably from those