Four short glosses of public-domain texts, with citations. Read as historiography, not a league table.
Gloss The supreme art is to subdue without fighting — a slogan with a reception history, not a score.
Use it to ask how a classroom slogan travels. Not a nation ranking.
Citation Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Lionel Giles translation, 1910 (public domain). Gloss, not a full reprint.
Gloss War as a continuation of policy by other means — one argument, not a winner’s podium.
Pair the line with a cost chapter. Do not turn policy into a nation league.
Citation Carl von Clausewitz, On War, J. J. Graham translation, 1873 (public domain). Teaching gloss.
Gloss Wounded combatants, whichever side, are to be collected and cared for — care across lines, not a casualty league.
The sentence forbids turning injury into a ranking of peoples.
Citation Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, 1864, Article 6 (treaty text, public domain). Gloss of the care rule.
Gloss The parties condemn recourse to war to settle international controversies and renounce it as an instrument of national policy — an aspiration, not proof that any people is peaceful.
Ask what a legal sentence can and cannot do. Do not score nations as peaceful or warlike.
Citation General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy, 1928, Article I (public domain treaty text). Condensed gloss.
Gloss A classical historiography text — read for method and speech craft, not as a modern nation scorecard.
Classroom historiography — never a modern nation league scoreboard.
Citation Public domain Crawley translation (widely hosted); cite the edition you open.
Gloss A US Civil War instructions text on the law of war — historiography for classrooms, not a how-to for modern targeting.
Document with a reception history — not operational targeting advice, not a nation league.
Citation Public domain US General Orders No. 100 (1863); Avalon Project and similar hosts.