26 JANUARY 1991, Page 34

The Use of Nothingness

En-felloe thirty staves, and there's a wheel: But the worth of the wheel derives from the hole in its hub. Take clay: a lump of muck until it's moulded To the hollow worth of a pot or a water-tub.

The walled space of a house gains yet more worth When pierced with windows and an opening door: Useful as are the things we know we use, The use of nothingness is worth yet more.

Lao Tzu (604-c.525

Translated from the Chinese by Graeme Wilson