ABSTRACT
Employing the army lies in knowing the time. The military writers perceived a need to employ each one of the four—the soft, hard, pliant, and firm—appropriately: "The Military Pronouncements states: 'The soft can control the hard, the weak can control the strong.' The employment of soldiers requires uniting both hardness and softness. The military writings, including Sun Pin's work, emphasize the concept of timeliness, stressing the need to recognize and exploit the fleeting moment for action. Sun Pin's era witnessed the growth of Taoist thought and its evolution into different perspectives, including eventually the so-called Huang-Lao school. Initiating action at the precise moment is so critical that any enemy force that fails to recognize and exploit such opportunities immediately becomes just as vulnerable as if it suffered from other fundamentally disabling conditions: In employing the army you must ascertain the enemy's voids and strengths and then race to his endangered points.
