If I realize myself then the empire also realizes me. If the empire and I realize each other, then we will always possess each other.'13 Human beings are ultimately individuals but they are also social beings, part of the whole. Anticipating the findings of modern ecology, the Taoists believed that the more individuality and diversity there is, the greater the overall harmony. The spontaneous order of society does not exclude conflict hut involves a dynamic interplay of opposite forces. Thus society is described by Chuang Tzu as an agreement of a certain number of families and individuals to abide by certain customs.
Discordant elements unite to form a harmonious whole.
Take away this unity and each has a separate individuality . . . A river is large because of its individual drops. And he is a just man who regards all parts from the point of view of the whole.14 Taoism thus offered the first and one of the most persuasive expressions of anarchist thinking. Its moral and political ideas were firmly grounded in a scientific view of the world. They recognized the unity in the diversity in nature and the universality of transformation.