“If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.”
Against a fortified opponent, prepare thoroughly; against superior force, avoid the frontal test.
The stratagem catalogue turns conditional: if he is secure at all points, be prepared for him; if he is in superior strength, evade him. Two ifs — the device depends on a reading of the opponent before the verb is chosen. In a list otherwise full of unconditional tricks, this entry quietly teaches the chapter’s deeper habit: the catalogue is not applied, it is matched.
A challenger maps an incumbent segment by segment. Where the incumbent is genuinely secure — locked contracts, deep integration — the challenger prepares: longer sales cycles, compliance work, patience budgets. Where the incumbent is merely large but thin — a legacy product sustained by inertia — the challenger evades and redirects demand rather than contesting. Same rival, two verbs, chosen per position. Competitors who apply one verb everywhere discover that preparing against the thin and evading the secure loses both ways.
Evading superior strength is not cowardice — it is routing, and Chapter 6 will build a whole doctrine of it. Nor is preparing against the secure a mandate for grinding: preparation is what you do while you wait for the position to change. The verse’s gift is the permission to refuse contests you cannot win, which most strategy ego quietly revokes.