Line by Line - Verse 57, Line 2

weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Wage war with surprise moves.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Deploy the military with surprise tactics
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

and you can win a war
with strategy and tactics.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

A lot of people may read this line and think that Lao Tzu is endorsing the act of war. As he makes clear in other sections of the TTC, war always represents a failure of the human imagination! When we commit to war, it means we have thrown other possible solutions on the trash heap.

But Lao Tzu also realizes that war does occur. It is in this vein that he suggests that creative strategies -- surprise moves -- can be used to outwit the opponent. Unlike the US strategy of endless war, I think it is Lao Tzu's fervent hope that a few surprise moves can bring a war to an end sooner as opposed to later.

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