I learned about the universe when I was perhaps only five years old, imagining the galaxies and nebulae spiraling and filling the endless void. “It must have great power,” I simply thought, with the primary cognitive abilities of a kindergartener. However, in spite of only knowing there were nine enormous planets surrounding an even more enormous Sun, nothing but solids, liquids, and gases, I felt scared and began revering these “sacred beings.”

This happens all the time here in China. We always connect the term “universe” with “the heavens” because they have been seen as equally sacred, unfamiliar, and fearful since ancient times, regardless of the fact that the seemingly finite amount of power, which we currently exercise to explore the mysteries of the unknown that lie beyond Earth, has grown considerably as modern technology develops at an astonishing speed.

There are places in the deepest parts of our minds reserved for inexplicable mysteries, and we seldom intrude on their sense of stateliness. The empty picture of the universe is buried in the blend of fear and intrigue, forever waiting to be drawn upon. As humans unveil peculiar yet distant features, we randomly paint them onto that generous canvas with our own depictions at heart.

However, these private drawings cannot count. How can you know the universe without communicating with it? “You are not a fish, so how can you know if it is happy?” The philosopher Zhuangzi raised this fundamental issue that concerns all — the quintessential characteristic of the universe — the unknown.

One of my closest friends tried to challenge this all-prevailing saying, stating that there is absolutely no definite limit to human intelligence, and that sense and sensibility can conquer all matters. Yet she was awed by the spectacular snow on the top of Mount Tai. We can never judge the universe when we can only see it from the inside. Just like we can never judge ourselves.

So, we advocate the evasive belief that humans and the universe are, at their cores, the same. Our own traits are bestowed on the universe, and it bestows its uniqueness on us. We are all sacred and distinguishable, yet we do not know what we are, what we are for, or what we are about to experience.