The simulation hypothesis: the Taoist version

The Simulation hypothesis, or the Matrix, and Reality hacking, as explained by the Taoist classic  "The Book of Lieh-Tzŭ" (604 B.C ?):


"Lao Ch'êng Tzŭ went to learn magic from the venerable Yin Wên. After a period of three years, having obtained no communication, he humbly asked permission to go home. Yin Wên bowed, and led him into the inner apartment. There, having dismissed his attendants, he spoke to him as follows: 'Long ago, when Lao Tzŭ was setting out on his journey to the West, he addressed me and said: "All that has the breath of life, all that possesses bodily form, is mere illusion. The point at which creation begins, the change effected by the Dual Principles — these are called respectively Life and Death. That which underlies the manifold workings of Destiny is called Evolution; that which produces and transforms bodily substance is called Illusion. The ingenuity of the Creative Power is mysterious, and its operations are profound. In truth, it is inexhaustible and eternal.[4] The ingenuity of that which causes material form is patent to the eye, and its operations are superficial. Therefore it arises anon, and anon it vanishes." Only one who knows that Life is really Illusion, and that Death is really Evolution, can begin to learn magic from me. You and I are both illusions. What need, then, to make a study of the subject?'[5]

Lao Ch'êng Tzŭ returned home, and for three months pondered deeply over the words of the Venerable Yin Wên. Subsequently, he had the power of appearing or disappearing at will; he could reverse the order of the four seasons, produce thunderstorms in winter and ice in summer, make flying things creep and creeping things fly. But to the end of his days he never published the secret of his art, so that it was not handed down to after generations."

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Taoist_teachings_from_the_book_of_Lieh_Tz%C5%AD/Book_3


老成子學幻於尹文先生，三年不告。 老成子請其過而求退。尹文先生揖而進之於室，屏左右而與之言曰：「昔老聃之徂西也，顧而告予曰：有生之氣，有形之狀，盡幻也。造化之所始，陰陽之所變者， 謂之生，謂之死。窮數達變，因形移易者，謂之化，謂之幻。造物者其巧妙，其功深，固難窮難終。因形者其巧顯。其功淺，故隨起隨滅。知幻化之不異生死也，始 可與學幻矣。吾與汝亦幻也，奚須學哉？」

老成子歸，用尹文先生之言，深思三月，遂能存亡自在，憣校四時；冬起雷，夏造冰；飛者走，走者飛。終身不箸其術， 固世莫傳焉。

子列子曰：「善為化者，其道密庸，其功同人。五帝之德，三王之功，未必盡智勇之力，或由化而成。孰測之哉？」

(列子 - 周穆王)