Reinterpreting “Ji Yu Qiu Yi” (急於丘役): A Strategic Semantic Reconstruction of Sun Tzu’s Warning on Social Fragmentation

This study conducts a semantic reconstruction and strategic reinterpretation of the phrase “Ji Yu Qiu Yi” (急於丘役) from the “Waging War” chapter of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, challenging the conventional interpretation that equates it with state-imposed conscription or public labor mobilization. Employing a hermeneutic approach and a socio-linguistic perspective, combined with the institutional context of the Warring States period and contemporary sociological theories, this paper proposes that “Qiu Yi” denotes a survival-driven response manifested as displaced, non-institutional labor emerging from systemic disorder and institutional collapse following military defeat. This phrase, rather than illustrating centralized governance, unveils the disintegration of national mobilization capacity, the breakdown of social order, and the fragmentation of the populace. At the semantic level, “Qiu” (丘) transcends its literal meaning as a mound or battlefield, symbolizing a disordered social domain characterized by involuntary gathering and dispersal; “Yi” (役) refers to marginalized, non-voluntary labor detached from institutional protections. This reinterpretation resonates with contemporary phenomena such as the rise of the gig economy, failures in strategic governance, and early indicators of systemic collapse, revealing an embedded early-warning logic within Sun Tzu’s military treatise. The phrase “Ji Yu Qiu Yi” is thus reframed as a linguistic signal of strategic imbalance, offering a novel perspective on dynamic governance, social resilience, and national security risks in the modern era. The contributions of this research are threefold: (1) rectifying long-standing semantic misinterpretations and Western interpretive biases in classical texts; (2) developing an interpretive framework that integrates semantic reconstruction with historical context and sociological insights; and (3) underscoring the pivotal role of popular agency in the collapse of strategic systems and governance structures, providing profound implications for understanding contemporary gig economies, policy failures, and public sentiment fragmentation. This paper bridges historical linguistics, institutional sociology, and strategic hermeneutics in its reinterpretation of classical Chinese texts.