A man with only slight experience of the world will likewise be only slightly stained with its impurities. A man well versed in the ways of the world will likewise be replete with its tricks and treacheries.
The pursuit of Daoist cultivation is a recurring theme in classical Chinese literature. For instance, Journey to the West’s Sun Wukong voyages to the Spirit Terrace, Square-Inch Mountain seeking immortality from Patriarch Subodhi (Subhuti).
In Journey to the West, when Guanyin Bodhisattva and her disciple Moksha (Hui’an Pilgrim) were sent by Tathāgata to find a scripture-seeking monk in Chang’an, their choice to lodge temporarily in a temple of the local spirit was no random decision.