unreliable feet

 

There lived a man in Zheng land, with the name of Cha-chi-ri(literally meaning, again-leave-footprint). He carefully drew a print of his feet, with which he intended to buy shoes of the right size for himself. On his way to the marketplace he forgot to carry the print with him. He realized this at the shoestore, and returned home to fetch it. When he got back to the marketplace, the shoestore was already closed and he failed to buy his shoes.

 

A neighbor heard about this and asked Cha-chi-ri; "Why didn't you try the shoes with your own feet?" Cha-chi-ri's answer was just marvellous. "The carefully drawn print is reliable, but my feet are not." (...)

 

A fable by Han-fei-zi criticizing sophiscated theorists of his time who would not deal with the reality itself, but only with hypothetical models of their own making. [Shenzi]

 

 

It's amazing that the Chinese started social sciences at so early a date. [Orun]