How to Read “After a great army, there will surely be a year of famine”
Taigun no ato ni wa kanarazu kyōnen ari
Meaning of “After a great army, there will surely be a year of famine”
This proverb means that after a major war, years of poor harvests and hardship will surely follow. War destroys farmland, takes away workers, and breaks down society’s ability to produce.
As a result, even after the fighting ends, food shortages and economic suffering continue for a long time. This is the harsh reality the proverb describes.
People use this proverb when they want to show the true cost of war. It warns that we must look beyond who wins on the battlefield.
We must also see the long period of suffering that comes afterward. Even today, we can understand the weight of these words when we think about how difficult recovery is after conflicts.
War may end, but its scars continue to hurt people for years, sometimes for generations.
Origin and Etymology
There are various theories about the exact source of this proverb. However, it is believed to be influenced by ancient Chinese philosophy, especially Laozi’s “Tao Te Ching.”
Laozi taught that “weapons are tools of misfortune” and that war goes against the natural order of heaven and earth.
Looking at the structure of the words, “great army” means large-scale military action. “Year of famine” means a year of crop failure and disaster.
In ancient China, people closely observed the relationship between war and natural disasters. Moving a great army requires enormous numbers of people and supplies.
Farmers are dragged to battlefields. Fields become overgrown and abandoned. Feed for war horses, food for soldiers, resources for making weapons.
All of these are taken from the land.
Furthermore, land that becomes a battlefield is burned. Wells are filled in. Crops are trampled and destroyed.
Even when war ends, agricultural production does not recover immediately. In villages that lost their workers, even planting seeds for the next year was sometimes impossible.
This proverb holds meaning beyond simple observation. It contains the idea of cause and effect.
The man-made destruction of war inevitably disturbs the natural order. As punishment, it brings crop failures and disasters.
Interesting Facts
Looking back at history, this proverb has been proven correct many times. Even in Japan, after the long wars of the Warring States period, serious famines occurred throughout the country.
Not only were fields destroyed by war, but irrigation systems were broken. People with farming knowledge were lost. These factors made the food crisis that followed even worse.
Interestingly, even “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese military text, repeatedly warns about the dangers of prolonged war.
The understanding that long wars exhaust national strength was deeply rooted in East Asian military thought. Even victory leaves the country weakened.
Usage Examples
- That conflict has ended, but as they say, after a great army, there will surely be a year of famine—recovery will take many years
- History shows us that after a great army, there will surely be a year of famine—the true cost of war appears after the fighting stops
Universal Wisdom
This proverb has been passed down through generations because it contains deep insight into human short-sighted thinking. We seek immediate victory or solutions.
In doing so, we tend to overlook the long suffering that waits ahead. Through the extreme example of war, this proverb points out a fundamental human weakness.
When emotions run high, people cannot calmly calculate the consequences of their actions. Driven by anger, fear, or even a sense of justice, they mobilize great force.
However, there is a natural law: the greater the force used, the greater the backlash. This applies not only to physical laws but also to society, economics, and human relationships.
What this proverb shows is the chain of cause and effect. One major action always has long-lasting effects.
Peace does not come immediately when war ends. Rebuilding what was destroyed, restoring lost trust, and healing wounded hearts takes many times longer than the destruction itself.
Our ancestors condensed this simple but easily forgotten truth into a short phrase. The use of force always comes with a price.
And that price is often greater than the original goal.
When AI Hears This
Moving a great army requires concentrating enormous energy at a single point. Training soldiers, preparing weapons, creating an organized structure.
This is what thermodynamics calls a “low entropy state”—a highly ordered state. But the second law of thermodynamics teaches us something important.
To create order in one place, disorder must necessarily increase somewhere else as payment.
Let’s look at this concretely. An army of 100,000 people needs at least several thousand tons of food to operate for one year.
If this is procured, crops from surrounding areas are completely stripped away. Furthermore, army movements damage roads. Camping clears forests. Combat tramples fields.
In other words, to maintain the army as “high order,” massive resources are drawn from the surrounding environment as an “energy source.” This drives that region into a disordered state—a year of famine.
This is the same as how a refrigerator works. To cool the inside (create order), you must release large amounts of heat from the back (increase disorder).
The order inside the refrigerator called an army can only exist by pushing heat onto the back panel called farming villages.
Even when war ends, entropy that has increased does not naturally return. That’s why a year of famine will surely come.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches us today is this: before choosing to use force to solve a problem, we need to think deeply about its long-term effects.
This isn’t just about conflicts between nations.
Conflicts at work, problems within families, issues in local communities. In any situation, it’s possible to resort to forceful methods.
But what remains after that moment of victory? Broken relationships, lost trust, and long-lasting discord. The year of famine after a great army is a lesson that applies to human relationships of any scale.
True wisdom is having power but restraining it. It’s having the patience to search for more constructive solutions.
Dialogue takes time. Compromise requires endurance. But what waits ahead is not the devastation after destruction. It’s sustainable peace.
Does the problem you face today really need a solution by force? Or can you take a little more time to find a path where no one gets hurt?
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