[The Dense and Diffuse]

This chapter revolves around six correlated pairs, all of which are primarily found in Sun-tzu's Art of War. It introduces them by positing conquest relationships between the first and second items: dense/diffuse, full/vacuous, shortcut/road, urgent/slow, numerous/few, and rested/tired. Sun Pin's sentences follow the basic pattern "Density conquers dispersion," but the implication, as expressed in the translation, is simply their concrete embodiment: "The dense conquer the diffuse." The dense and diffuse mutually change into each other; the full and vacuous; the urgent and slow mutually change into each other; the numerous and few mutually change into each other. A dense enemy can be dispersed; the full can be made vacuous; one taking shortcuts can main roads; the urgent. Because of Sun Pin's penchant for employing laconic parallels in series, it appears that some terms may have been inappropriately included, such as shortcuts and main roads. Depending upon perspective and inference, radically different interpretations are possible.