g Tzu (_Chwongdza_), a philosopher of the third and fourth
centuries B.C., who was not only a mystic but also a moralist and a
social reformer, has something to say on the subject: "If there is
existence, there must have been non-existence. And if there was a time
when nothing existed, then there must have been a time before that, when
even nothing did not exist. Then when nothing came into existence, could
one really say whether it belonged to existence or non-existence?"

"Nothing" was rather a favourite term with Chuang Tzu for the exercise
of his wit. Light asked Nothing, saying: "Do you, sir, exist, or do you
not exist?" But getting no answer to his question, Light set to work to
watch for the appearance of Nothing. Hidden, vacuous--all day long he
looked but could not see it, listened but could not hear it, grasped at
but could not seize it. "Bravo!" cried Light; "who can equal this? I
can get to be nothing [meaning darkness], but I can't get to be not
nothing."

Confucius would have nothing to say on the subject of death and a future
state; his theme was consistently this life and its obligations, and he
regarded speculation on the unknown as sheer waste of time. When one
of three friends died and Confucius sent a disciple to condole with the
other two, the disciple found them sitting by the side of the corpse,
merrily singing and playing on the lute. They professed the then
comparatively new faith which taught that life was a dream and death the
awakening. They believed that at death the pure man "mounts to heaven,
and roaming through the clouds, passes beyond the limits of space,
oblivious of existence, for ever and ever without end." When the shocked
disciple reported what he had seen, Confucius said, "These men travel
beyond the rule of life; I travel within it. Consequently, our paths do
not meet; and I was wrong in sending you to mourn. They look on life as
a huge tumour from which death sets them free. All the same they know
not where they were before birth, nor where they will be after death.
They ignore their passions. They take no account of their ears and
eyes. Backwards and forwards through all eternity, they do not admit a
beginning or an end. They stroll beyond the dust and dirt of mortality,
to wander in the realms of inaction. How should such men trouble
themselves with the conventionalities of this world, or care what people
may think of them?"

Life comes, says Chuang Tzu, and cannot be declin