Читать книгу Myths and Legends of China - E. T. C. Werner - Страница 74

Lieh Tzu (said to have lived in the fifth century B.C.), one of the brightest stars in the Taoist constellation, considered this nameable world as having evolved from an unnameable absolute being. The evolution did not take place through the direction of a personal will working out a plan of creation: "In the beginning there was Chaos [hun tun]. It was a mingled potentiality of Form [hsing], Pneuma [ch'i], and Substance [chih]. A Great Change [t'ai i] took place in it, and there was a Great Starting [t'ai ch'u] which is the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved a Great Beginning [t'ai shih], which is the inception of Pneuma. The Great Beginning was followed by the Great Blank [t'ai su], which is the first formation of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form being all evolved out of the primordial chaotic mass, this material world as it lies before us came into existence." And that which made it possible for Chaos to evolve was the Solitary Indeterminate (i tu or the tao), which is not created, but is able to create everlastingly. And being both Solitary and Indeterminate it tells us nothing determinate about itself.