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PT.I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE. -
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This view is the same as that, and that view is the same as this. But that view involves both a right and a wrong; and this view involves also a right and a wrong :-are there indeed, or are there not the two views, that and this ? They have not found their point of correspondency which is called the pivot of the Tâo. As soon as one finds this pivot, he stands in the centre of the ring (of thought), where he can respond without end to the changing views ;—without end to those affirming, and without end to those denying. Therefore I said, “There is nothing like the proper light (of the mind).'
4. By means of a finger (of my own) to illustrate that the finger (of another) is not a finger is not so good a plan as to illustrate that it is not so by means of what is (acknowledged to be) not a finger; and by means of (what I call) a horse to illustrate that (what another calls) a horse is not so, is not so good a plan as to illustrate that it is not a horse, by means of what is (acknowledged to be) not a horse 1. (All things in) heaven and earth may be (dealt with as) a finger; (each of their myriads may be (dealt with as) a horse. Does a thing seem so to me? (I say that) it is so. Does it seem not so to me? (I say that) it is not so. A path is formed by (constant)
1 The language of our author here is understood to have reference to the views of Kung-sun Lung, a contemporary of Hui-zze, and a sophist like him. One of his treatises or arguments had the title of The White Horse,' and another that of 'Pointing to Things. If these had been preserved, we might have seen more clearly the appropriateness of the text here. But the illustration of the monkeys and their actions shows us the scope of the whole paragraph to be that controversialists, whose views are substantially the same, may yet differ, and that with heat, in words.
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