According to Sun Tzu, when must an army fight and when must it not fight?

Question

I can't find this answer anywhere

Answer 1

Shamelessly attack the weak; shamelessly flee from the strong. Mao.

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: (1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. (2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. (3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. (4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. (5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. Sun Tzu
Regards

Answer 2

II Waging War
3. An army must fight when victory, the main object in war, will not be delayed. If it is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed. When troops attack cities, their strength will be exhausted.

Answer 3

You could answer this question dozens of ways from the text.


The one I remember is that you should fight where your army is at a fullness (or something like that, the translation I had read like a cheap self help book.) Meaning that you should fight where you had more force while your opponent had less force. Which i guess is why they dressed it up, otherwise you just say "well duh."