折疑論 4.21

4.21

神蛇能斷而復續。不能使人不斷也（異物誌云神蛇斷而復續）靈龜審人之禍福。自不免刳剔之災（列子。宋元君夢人被髮曰。予被清江河伯之所漁。請君救之。覺而外巡。果見網得白龜圓五尺。君欲活之卜者曰。龜有七十二鑽。以卜吉凶。如此則雖能卜人之禍福。不能自免刳剔之災患）。

'A divine snake can reconnect itself when severed, yet it cannot keep a human from being severed. (The Records of Strange Things says the divine snake reconnects when severed.) A numinous tortoise discerns humans' misfortune and fortune, yet it cannot escape the calamity of being gutted and drilled. (Liezi says: Lord Yuan of Song dreamed of a man with disheveled hair who said, 'I was caught by a fisherman of the River Earl of the Clear River; please save me, my lord.' Awakening, he inspected outside and indeed saw that a net had caught a white tortoise five feet around. The lord wished to let it live, but the diviner said, 'The tortoise undergoes seventy-two drillings to divine good and bad fortune.' Thus, though it can divine humans' fortune and misfortune, it cannot itself escape the disaster of being gutted and drilled.)