Ok that makes sense. Thanks again for taking the time to type that out for me! You seem very knowledgeable on the subject!

First of all- thank you for the explanation. The text said:

“Then he cut his throat and died. When the king of Wu heard about it he was enraged and seized his corpse”.

After reading what you said and rereading that part it makes a lot more sense now. He says the following before dying:

“You must plant my grave with catalpa trees in order that they may be used for vessels. And gouge out my eyes and suspend them above Wu East gate so that I may see Yüech invaders enter and destroy Wu”.

So I figured he was physically talking to the executioner who had the blade already on his throat or something. That’s why I thought it was an execution.

Was that considered an honorable death? I know WW2 Japanese forces carries daggers they’d use to commit seppuku as it was considered honorable. Obviously there’s a MASSIVE time difference between those two periods haha.

Thanks again for the assistance!

Thankfully not haha. I’m just reading The Art Of War by Sun Tzu because I wanted to get into reading. I get it’s not exactly a beginner read but so far I’ve understood enough of it except for this section. The translator was describing Wu Tzu Hsu’s life in the introduction but the way he summarized all the wars and events into just a few pages kind of made it confusing for someone who has never studied that time period. I found his “character” interesting enough that I was curious why he was executed. Hence this post.

I plan on reading “On War” by Carl Von Clausewitz next just for fun. Again- probably not a beginner read either but whatever haha. I think they make you read it if you join military or something (don’t quote me on that) so I suppose you could say I’m doing someone’s homework for fun 😂