40).
From these and similar statements it would appear that the philosophy of the Tao-te-king is that of absolute being, or the identity of being and not-being.

In this point it anticipated Hegel by twenty-three centuries.[18] It teaches that the absolute is the source of being and of not-being.

Being is essence, not-being is existence.

The first is the noumenal, the last the phenomenal.' As being is the source of not-being (Sec.

40), by identifying one's self with being one attains to all that is not-being, i.e.to all that exists.
Instead, therefore, of aiming at acquiring knowledge, the wise man avoids it: instead of acting, he refuses to act.