The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi

placed in the scale against a single grain. [Literally, "a victorious army is like an _i_ (20 oz.) weighed against a _shu_ (1/24 oz.); a routed army is a _shu_ weighed against an _i_." The point is simply the enormous advantage which a disciplined force, flushed with victory, has over one demoralized by defeat. Legge, in his note on Mencius, I. 2. ix. 2, makes the _i_ to be 24 Chinese ounces, and corrects Chu Hsi’s statement that it equaled 20 oz. only. But Li Ch’uan of the T’ang dynasty here gives the same figure as Chu Hsi.]