On the strength of this story, Mencius said: "Yang's principle was, every man for himself.

Though by plucking out a single hair he might have benefited the whole world, he would not have done so.

Mo's system was universal love.

If by taking off every hair from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot he could have benefited the empire, he would have done so.

Neither of these two doctrines is sound; a middle course is the right one." The origin of the visible universe is a question on which Chinese philosophers have very naturally been led to speculate.