I think of the past twenty years,
when I used to walk home quietly
from Kuo-ch’ing,

All the people in the Kuo-ch’ing monastery –
would say, “Hanshan is an idiot.”

“Am I really an idiot:” I reflected.
But my reflections failed to solve the question:
for I myself do not know who the self is,
So how can others know who I am?

Hanshan,  9th century, Chinese Buddhist/Taoist poet