肇論新疏 1.116

1.116

此文小變南華之文，彼云：「仲尼謂顏回曰：『吾終身與汝交一臂而失之，可不哀與？』」交臂二說：一云少選也，猶言掉臂之間已失矣；一云臂相執也，孔顏交臂相執皆令勿遷，然已遷去，豈能留之？故郭象解云：「夫變化不可執而留也。」論意變化密移、新新非舊，既唯見新，新不至故，豈有遷耶？

This passage slightly alters the text of the *Nanhua jing*, which says: 'Zhongni said to Yan Hui: "All my life, as I cross an arm with you, I lose it; is this not lamentable?"' There are two explanations for 'crossing arms': one says it is a brief moment, like saying within the gesture of dropping an arm it is already lost; the other says it is clasping arms, Confucius and Yan Hui clasping arms with each other wishing it not to change, yet it has already passed away—how could one retain it? Therefore Guo Xiang's commentary says: 'Transformations cannot be held and retained.' The treatise's intention is that transformations secretly shift, and each new thing is not the old; since one only sees the new, and the new does not arrive at the old, how could there be flux?