To be able to stop war is a true craft of war. This famous military view was first raised by King Zhuang of Chu（？-591 BC） in the Spring and Autumn Period, on the basis of the structure of the Chinese character wu (武). Wu is composed of zhi (止), which means to stop; and ge (戈), which means dagger-axe or weapons and is used here in the metaphorical sense of warfare. To interpret wu as stopping war was consistent with the cultural characteristics of Chinese characters. It also expresses the Chinese people’s thinking of using military means to stop violence and their love of peace and opposition to war.

When Cang Jie created Chinese script, he put zhi (止 stop) and ge (戈 daggeraxe) together to make wu (武 war). To stop war, sages used military force to quell violence and turmoil. They did not abuse their military power to commit atrocities of killing and destroying their opponents. (The History of the Han Dynasty)