Taoism is in part a philosophy of noncommittal refusal, committed indecision and conscious inaction.
Lao Tzu left his lucrative position in the imperial court and went into (voluntary?) exile. Before crossing into China’s vast interior, Lao Tzu dictated his philosophy to a border guard stationed at the frontier. The guard abandoned his sentry and left with Lao Tzu, both vanishing into the desert.
By the time hard imperial labor and resources had built the Great Wall across this western border, Taoism would be a state sanctioned religion with Lao Tzu deified. How an exile and anonymous deserter authored and disseminated an antimanifesto before leaving their civilization remains mysterious.
MEANWHILE
The popular belief that the Great Wall of China can be seen from Space is in fact urban legend, originating perhaps from Ripley’s Belive It or Not.
HOWEVER
Skylab astronaut William Pogue thought he had seen the Great Wall of China from the space station, but discovered he was actually looking at the Grand Canal of China near Beijing. He spotted the Great Wall with binoculars, but said that “it wasn’t visible to the unaided eye.”