Chapter 5, Part 1A - Lieh Tzu

T'ang of Yin questioned Hsia Ko, saying: 'In the beginnings of antiquity, did individual things exist?'

He suspected that there was only Chaos, and nothing more.

'If things did not exist then,' replied Hsia Ko, 'how could they be in existence now? Or will the men of future ages be right in denying the existence of things at the present time?

'Things in that case,' pursued T'ang, 'have no before nor after?'

Hsia Ko replied: 'To the beginning and end of things there is no precise limit. Beginning may be end, and end may be beginning. How can we conceive of any fixed period to either?

'But when it comes to something outside matter in space, or anterior to events in time, our knowledge fails us.'

'Then upwards and downwards and in every direction space is a finite quantity?

Ko replied: 'I do not know.'

It was not so much that he did not know as that it is unknowable.
~ Lionel Giles translation via Terebess Asia Online

~ Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Lieh Tzu.