In darkness languishes the precious stone.When will its excellence enchant the world? When seeming is taken for being, being becomes seeming. When nothing is taken for something, something becomes nothing.The Stone dispels seeming and nothing, And climbs to the Gates of the Great Void.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_the_Stone_(Barry_Hughart)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_the_Stone_(Barry_Hughart)