Notes

1 出生 Chu sheng is listed by Shizhen as an idiom meaning to be born. Also, 出生入死 chu sheng rù sî is listed by Shizhen as an idiom meaning to go through fire and water, to brave untold danger, or to risk one's life. Gibbs translates it: "in circumstances of life-and-death", contrasting it with the "ordinary living conditions" of those who are just moving from birth to the land of death.

2 十有三 Shí yôu san (ten has three) has been variously translated as three out of ten, three tenths, and three plus ten. My take on it is this: three out of ten are this way, three out of ten are that way, three out of ten are the other way — there is still one left out of the ten. That is the skillful preserver of life, the one who the chapter is really about. When 十有三 shí yôu san is translated as "thirteen", this point is lost. Also, this usage is not to be found in Menninger or Needham, who tell only of 十三 Shí san as representing thirteen. (Shizen is silent on this point.) Even worse is to translate it as "about one-third", losing in the roundoff the whole point of the chapter.

3 Shizen lists 死地 si di as an idiom for fatal situation or death trap. Others have translated it (here and at the end of the chapter) as the realm of death, or the point in the body where death enters. My translation, "the place of death", encompasses all these meanings.