Mencius, a Confucian, held that "the organs of eye and ear can't think and are deceived by objects." And in his parable of Cook Ting, the Taoist Chuang Tzu said, "I meet it with my spirit instead of seeing it with my eyes. My senses and knowledge have stopped, and my spirit goes where it wishes."
孟子有「耳目之官不思而蔽於物」的說法，也就是說，感官的本身並不能思考，所以常為外物蒙蔽；莊子在庖丁解牛寓言中提出「以神遇而不以目視，官知止而神欲行」的觀念，換句話說，耳聽、眼看、舌嘗、鼻嗅……，反不如精神內發來得真實。