"To mount a high tower and glimpse as far as the four neighboring states is what people desire. To sit hidden in a closed room, turning inward into the darkness, boring into a grave and sleeping in a cave, reaching to the edge of the Yellow Springs [realm of the dead] is what people hate. Someone with a closed mind and sealed-off thoughts who does not gaze from the heights is a companion of the dead."
—Wang Chong (26-ca. 100 A.D.)