Abstract

Saint Augustine said, in a certain place: "I know what Time is, but when anybody asks me to explain what it is, I cannot answer." I make it my own, this humble confession of one of the greatest thinkers in the early Christian West, when I am asked now to speak and reflect on "The Time of Heaven in Chinese Ancient Philosophy." With this Augustinian reservation, I will try to respond to Dr. Zhang's inspiring presentation of this theme. For philosophers, it does indeed contain, as he suggestively underscored "a subtle tiding." The subtlety comes from the claimed originality of "original time," more original and more subtle indeed than the physical time of the four seasons, and essentially different from teleological time. What is this "subtle tiding" of Original Time?