In the last chapter I said that Confucianism and Taoism are the two main streams of Chinese thought. They became so only after a long evolution, however, and from the fifth through the third centuries B.C. they were only two among many other rival schools of thought. During that period the number of schools was so great that the Chinese referred to them as the "hundred schools."
在上一章里，我说到，儒家和道家是中国思想中的两个主要流派，这是经过长期演化的结果。从公元前五世纪到前三世纪末，儒、道两家只是许多互相竞争的学派中的两派 。在这时期中，思想流派多到如此程度，以至在中国历史上称之为 “诸子百家”。
