In his book Reflections on Beauty, Chiang Hsun writes that Laozi's use of departure, distance and return to describe unfathomable time and space entered deeply into the Chinese psyche, and from then on was promoted as the highest ideal of art and literature.
「一種對無限時空的認識在春秋戰國時期萌芽了。」蔣勳在《美的沈思》書中寫道，老子用逝、遠、返來形容不可捉摸的時空，深入中國人生命的神髓，在此後藝術與文學裡被奉為最高理想。