Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits;
以禱祀 “by prayers or sacrifices,” says Chang Yü. 鬼 are the
disembodied spirits of men, and 神 supernatural beings or “gods.”
it cannot be obtained inductively from experience,
Tu Mu’s note makes the meaning clear: 象, he says, is the same as
類 reasoning by analogy; 不可以他事比類而求 “[knowledge of the
enemy] cannot be gained by reasoning from other analogous cases.”
nor by any deductive calculation.
Li Ch‘üan says: 夫長短闊狹遠近小大卽可驗之於度數人之情僞度不能知也
“Quantities like length, breadth, distance and magnitude, are
susceptible of exact mathematical determination; human actions
cannot be so calculated.”