"The ascetic keeps a hovel of a dwelling; the sensualist is like a house-proud woman whose house possesses her rather than she possessing it. The only prison-house is of man's own building of the hard blocks of rigid ideas, prejudices, forms,and names.Austerities and indulgences are equally an imbalance and a disturbance of the yin-yang harmony. Taoist mysticism is an intellectual, not an emotional, exercise; it has no personal God by whom it can feel accepted or rejected. Instead there is a calm contemplation of the sublime immensity of the universe and an entering into the smallest detail of nature. "

Ibid., XIII. Wang Li Yung (active 1120-after 1145), The Transformations of Lord Lao, Southern Sung dynasty, early 12th century