Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/58

24 for Speech? On the other hand, since I can utter these words, how can Speech not exist?

"If it does exist, we have and Speech=two; and two and one=three. From which point onwards even the best mathematicians will fail to reach:



how much more then will ordinary people fail?

"Hence, if from nothing you can proceed to something, and subsequently reach three, it follows that it would be still more easy if you were to start from something. To avoid such progression, you must put yourself into subjective relation with the external.

"Before conditions existed, was. Before definitions existed. Speech was. Subjectively, we are conscious of certain delimitations which are,—

These are called the Eight Predicables.


 * Not, of course, in the strict logical sense.

For the true Sage, beyond the limits of an external world, they exist, but are not recognised. By the true Sage, within the limits of an external world, they are recognised, but are not assigned. And so, with regard to the wisdom of the ancients, as embodied in the canon of Spring and Autumn,


 * Confucius' history of his native State. Now one of the canonical books of China.