All species have originative or moving power (chi). When they obtain water, they become small organisms like silk. In a place bordering water and land, they become lichens. Thriving on the bank, they become moss. On the fertile soil they become weeds. The roots of these weeds become worms, and their leaves become butterflies. Suddenly the butterfly is transformed into an insect, which is born under the stove (for its heat), and which has the appearance of having its skin shed. Its name is called chu-t'o. After a thousand days, chu-t'o becomes a bird called kan-yu-ku. The spittle of the kan-yu-ku becomes an insect called ssu-mi. The ssu-mi becomes a wine fly, which produces the insect called I-lu. The insect huang-k'uang produces the insect called chiu-yu. Mosquitos come from the rotten insects called huan. The plant yanghsi paired with the bamboo which for a Iong, time has had no shoot, produces the insect called ch'ing-ning. The ch'ing-ning produces the insect called ch'eng, ch'eng produces the horse, and the horse produces men. Man again goes back into the originative process of Nature. All things come from the originative process of Nature and return to the originative process of Nature.

(Tchuang Tzu)