Pai-chang's statement plays upon this usage in the context of the fluid and varied Chinese usage of 'Dao'. This links it to the Proto-Indo-European root drogh (to run along) and Indo-European dhorg (way, movement). Nameless, is the origin of Heaven … Taoism as a religion began in the year 142 C.E. Axel Schuessler's etymological dictionary presents two possibilities for the tonal morphology of dào 道 "road; way; method" < Middle Chinese dâuB < Old Chinese *lûʔ and dào 道 or 導 "to go along; bring along; conduct; explain; talk about" < Middle dâuC < Old *lûh. The reappearance of C162 [辶] "walk" in ti with the support of C157 [⻊] "foot" in tao, "to trample," "tread," should perhaps serve us as a warning not to overemphasize the headworking functions implied in tao in preference to those of the lower extremities.[40]. Laozi in the Tao Te Ching explains that the Tao is not a "name" for a "thing" but the underlying natural order of the Universe whose ultimate essence is difficult to circumscribe due to it being non-conceptual yet evident in one's being of aliveness. The Tao Te Ching is a series of poems that can be considered to be a work of philosophy, a treatise on how to run a government, a how-to book for achieving a balanced life, or a sages reflection of humanity and the universe. Thus, the religious life is not an elite or special journey for Neo-Confucians. The Tao is the fundamental and central concept of these schools of thought. [citation needed] The Tao is "eternally nameless" (Tao Te Ching-32. a universal, regarded as an ideal attained to a greater … For other uses, see, Religious, philosophical, and cultural interpretations. The Tao T'i Lun is an eighth century exegesis of the Tao Te Ching, written from a well-educated and religious viewpoint, that represents the traditional scholarly perspective. Thus, the constant void enables one to observe the true essence. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. [26], During the Song dynasty, Neo-Confucians regarded Dao as the purest thing-in-itself. There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, A person dwelling within the Tao excels in themselves and their activities. In most belief systems, the word is used symbolically in its sense of 'way' as the 'right' or 'proper' way of existence, or in the context of ongoing practices of attainment or of the full coming into being, or the state of enlightenment or spiritual perfection that is the outcome of such practices. The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name. In Lewis' thinking, God created the Tao and fully displayed it through the person of Jesus Christ. [note 1][note 2][6] Liu Da asserts that the Tao is properly understood as an experiential and evolving concept and that there are not only cultural and religious differences in the interpretation of the Tao but personal differences that reflect the character of individual practitioners.[7]. The earliest recorded usages were Tao (1736), Tau (1747), Taou (1831), and Dao (1971). Despite this diversity, there are some clear, common patterns and trends in Taoism and its branches. [16], Alternatively, philosophical Taoism regards the Tao as a non-religious concept; it is not a deity to be worshiped, nor is it a mystical Absolute in the religious sense of the Hindu Brahman. Most recently, Taoism has emerged from a period of suppression and is undergoing a revival in China. The multitudinous branches of religious Taoism accordingly regard the Tao, and interpret writings about it, in innumerable ways. noun (sometimes lowercase) (in philosophical Taoism) that in virtue of which all things happen or exist. Taoism does include many deities, but although these are worshipped in Taoist temples, they are part of the universe and depend, like everything, on the Tao. An influential early Confucian, Hsiin Tzu, explicitly noted this contrast. [24], Zhu Xi, Cheng Ho, and Cheng Yi perceived the Dao in the context of li (Principle) and t'ien li (the Principle of Heaven). harvp error: no target: CITEREFMair2001 (, harvp error: no target: CITEREFRobinet1997 (, harvp error: no target: CITEREFZhou1972 (, International Organization for Standardization, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu, Translation of the Tao te Ching by Derek Lin, 老子 Lǎozĭ 道德經 Dàodéjīng Verbatim, Analogous, Poetic (Chinese, English, German), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tao&oldid=995525533, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2015, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Articles with Chinese-language sources (zh), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [22] According to Kirkland, "most scholars who have seriously studied Daoism, both in Asia and the West, have finally abandoned the simplistic dichotomy of Dàojiā and Dàojiào, 'philosophical Daoism' and 'religious Daoism. The Tao transcends humanity and all of creation. [8] It is related to the idea of qi, the essential energy of action and existence. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. The earliest Chinese character for Tao, explains Deng Ming-Dao, “is formed by combining the sign for ‘movement’ with the sign for ‘leg.’” So the Tao is a picture of a person moving along a path. the art of ruling. Dao, (Chinese: “way,” “road,” “path,” “course,” “speech,” or “method”) the fundamental concept of Chinese philosophy. ② (for a course (of food); a streak (of light); etc.) The philosophy of Taoism grew into a religion of the peasant classes of the Shang Dynasty, who lived closely with nature. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. Related words in a few modern Indo-European languages are Russian doroga (way, road), Polish droga (way, road), Czech dráha (way, track), Serbo-Croatian draga (path through a valley), and Norwegian dialect drog (trail of animals; valley). Taoism perceives the Tao as a natural order underlying the substance and activity of the Universe. In fact, the closest most educational sources will come to assigning a da… The evidence just summarized would indicate rather that "tao with the hand" is but a variant of the basic tao and that the word itself combined both nominal and verbal aspects of the etymon. Hundreds of collections of Pali and Sanskrit texts were translated into Chinese by Buddhist monks within a short period of time. Note that brackets clarify abbreviations and ellipsis marks omitted usage examples. the rational basis of human activity or conduct. Tao was the 82nd-most-common surname in mainland China, but it was unlisted among the 100 most common Taiwanese surnames. Besides these common 4th and 3rd tonal specifications dào 道 "way" and dǎo 道 (or 導) "guide", 道 has a rare 1st level tone dāo pronunciation in the regional idiomatic expression shénshendāodāo 神神道道 "odd; bizarre". The tao/dao "the way" English word of Chinese origin has three meanings, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The Named is the mother of all things. Taoists took a broader, more naturalistic/metaphysical view on the relationship between humankind and the Universe, and considered social rules to be at best a derivative reflection of the natural and spontaneous interactions between people, and at worst calcified structure that inhibited naturalness and created conflict. Following the Way, then, is like going on a cosmic trek. The primarily idea and focus of Taoism is the Tao (way, path), which is important to be followed, not taking any action that is contrary to nature and … English words for tao include person, man, human, someone, guy, somebody, human being, individual, fellow and soul. Ceiling in 10,000 Buddhas temple in Hong Kong. In contrast, Zhang Zai presented a vitalistic Dao that was the fundamental component or effect of ch'i, the motive energy behind life and the world. Many fun stories abound about these origins; however, these are just that, stories. The most important thing about the Tao is how it works in the world, and how human beings relate to it. And being comes from non-being. The Tao was shared with Confucianism, Chán and Zen Buddhism and more broadly throughout East Asian philosophy and religion in general. Tao is also the 9,882 nd most frequent forename worldwide, held by 100,756 people. Paronomastically, tao is equated with its homonym 蹈 tao < d'ôg, "to trample," "tread," and from that point of view it is nothing more than a "treadway," "headtread," or "foretread "; it is also occasionally associated with a near synonym (and possible cognate) 迪 ti < d'iôk, "follow a road," "go along," "lead," "direct"; "pursue the right path"; a term with definite ethical overtones and a graph with an exceedingly interesting phonetic, 由 yu < djôg," "to proceed from." The Way of Man means, among other things, procreation; and eunuchs are said to be 'far from the Way of Man'. It might be more helpful to regard Tao as a system of guidance. In Confucianism and in extended uses, the way to be followed, the right conduct; doctrine or method. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. In all its uses, the Tao is considered to have ineffable qualities that prevent it from being defined or expressed in words. The devotional perspective of the Tao is expressed in the Ch'ing Ching Ching, a liturgical text that was originally composed during the Han dynasty and is used as a hymnal in religious Taoism, especially among eremites. In Chinese, this character 道 is pronounced as Cantonese dou6 and Hokkian to7. The Tao causes the people to be fully in accord with the ruler. This page was last edited on 21 December 2020, at 14:47. Tao is a Chinese word that has different meanings, but is typically translated as “way” or “path.” It is the principle upon which the religious and philosophical traditions of Taoism are based. It typifies the most common Chinese character classification of "radical-phonetic" or "phono-semantic" graphs, which compound a "radical" or "signific" (roughly providing semantic information) with a "phonetic" (suggesting ancient pronunciation). It operates everywhere and is free from danger. The acceptance of Taoism by the ruling class has waxed and waned, alternately enjoying periods of favor and rejection. The manifestation of the Tao is De, which rectifies and invigorates the world with the Tao's radiance. [29]. Victor H. Mair proposes a Proto-Indo-European etymology for dao 道, supported by numerous cognates in Indo-European languages, and semantically similar Arabic and Hebrew words. Thus, outside of a few broad similarities, it is difficult to provide an accurate yet clear summary of their interpretation of the Tao. Before we get into the 10 themes, here are my favorite chapters and passages from my first reading of the Tao Te Ching. 1 a : the unconditional and unknowable source and guiding principle of all reality as conceived by Taoists. Wuwei (Pinyin: wúwéi), or "naturalness", is contingent on understanding and conforming to this inner nature, which is interpreted variously from a personal, individual nature to a more generalized notion of human nature within the greater Universe.[13]. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; Taoism or Daoism is a Chinese philosophy and folk religion of people primarily in the rural areas of China. It is the source of the Universe and the seed of its primordial purity resides in all things. The Tao can be roughly thought of as the flow of the Universe, or as some essence or pattern behind the natural world that keeps the Universe balanced and ordered. My favorite full chapters during my first reading were: 10, 19, 22, 29, 33, 37, 47, 48, 50, 63, 65, 67, 70, 71, 81. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. The Tao includes several concepts in one word: BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "[27] He asserted that every religion and philosophy contains foundations of universal ethics as an attempt to line up with the Tao—the way mankind was designed to be. De (德 "power; virtue; integrity") is the term generally used to refer to proper adherence to the Tao; De is the active living or cultivation of the way. Ch'an (Zen) Buddhists regard the Dao as synonymous with both the Buddhist Path (marga) and the results of it; the Eightfold Path and Buddhist enlightenment (satori). Tao is a fairly uncommon surname in the United States , being ranked 12,503rd during the 1990 census and 10,033rd during the year 2000 one . …. In Confucianism and religious forms of Taoism, these are often explicitly moral/ethical arguments about proper behavior, while Buddhism and more philosophical forms of Taoism usually refer to the natural and mercurial outcomes of action (comparable to karma). The Chinese language is written in a logosyllabic style, while English and other European languages are phonogramatic. Finding the Dao and Buddha-nature is not simply a matter of formulations, but an active response to the Four Noble Truths that cannot be fully expressed or conveyed in words and concrete associations. The Tao cannot be described in words. The origin of Tao is Chinese. The Great Learning expands on this concept explaining that the Way illuminates virtue, improves the people, and resides within the purest morality. Philosophical speculation about what the Tao actually is, is less important than living in sensitive response to the Tao. Long, long ago, when Earth and Sky met in the Valley of Whispers, in the dense, green forest there lived a woodcutter and his wife. 1972. The archaic pronunciation of Tao sounded approximately like drog or dorg. Confucianism regards the Way, or Truth, as concordant with a particular approach to life, politics, and tradition. This intuitive knowing of "life" cannot be grasped as a concept; it is known through actual living experience of one's everyday being. It would be more appropriately rendered by "lead way" and "lode" ("way," "course," "journey," "leading," "guidance"; cf. Which existed before Heaven and Earth. ◆V. The earliest written forms of dao are bronzeware script and seal script characters from Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 BCE) bronzes and writings. Tao would seem, then, to be etymologically a more dynamic concept than we have made it translation-wise. 7th–3rd centuries BCE) pronunciations, reconstructions for 道 "way" and 道/導 "guide" are *d'ôg (Karlgren), *dəw (Zhou), *dəgwx and *dəgwh,[35] *luʔ,[36] and *lûʔ and *lûh. Tao is usually translated into English as “the Way.” But I agree with Alan Watts, “I prefer not to translate the word Tao at all because to us Tao is a sort of nonsense syllable, indicating the mystery that we can never understand – the unity that underlies the opposites” (2000, 38). "[28], These Confucian Analects citations of dao verbally meaning "to guide; to lead" are: "The Master said, 'In guiding a state of a thousand chariots, approach your duties with reverence and be trustworthy in what you say" and "The Master said, 'Guide them by edicts, keep them in line with punishments, and the common people will stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame." "lodestone" and "lodestar"), the somewhat obsolescent deverbal noun from "to lead. Origin of first name Tao Back Popularity of the first name Tao The popularity of the first name, from 1600 to nowadays, is calculated on the basis of the family trees published on Geneanet. In Middle Chinese (ca. Tao is both Named and Nameless, As Nameless, it is the origin of all things. [21] Some scholars believe that there is no distinction between Daojia and Daojiao. All things in the world come from being. An early surviving text to describe the Tao is the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao-Tzu (The old master). This is supported by textual examples of the use of the primary tao in the verbal sense "to lead" (e. g., Analects 1.5; 2.8) and seriously undermines the unspoken assumption implied in the common translation of Tao as "way" that the concept is essentially a nominal one. As part of this process, many Chinese words introduced their rich semantic and philosophical associations into Buddhism, including the use of 'Dao' for central concepts and tenets of Buddhism. 'Dao' is commonly used in this fashion by Chinese Buddhists, heavy with associations and nuanced meanings. Each school of philosophy has its tao, its doctrine of the way in which life should be ordered. [5] The original use of the term was as a form of praxis rather than theory – a term used as a convention to refer to something that otherwise cannot be discussed in words – and early writings such as the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching make pains to distinguish between conceptions of the Tao (sometimes referred to as "named Tao") and the Tao itself (the "unnamed Tao"), which cannot be expressed or understood in language. It is known to have been written over 2400 years ago, but not much else is retained about the origins. The workings of Tao are vast and often beyond human comprehension. [17], The forms and variations of religious Taoism are incredibly diverse. Also a female Japanese name. The 'emptiness' refers to the Buddhist concept of sunyata. [18], A central tenet in most varieties of religious Taoism is that the Tao is ever-present, but must be manifested, cultivated, and/or perfected in order to be realized. The tree which seemed to die came back to life in the spring season and the grass grew again. He only rarely speaks of the t'ien Dao (Way of Heaven). Dao is written with the Chinese character 道 in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Emptiness is the Dao. Water is soft and flexible, yet possesses an immense power to overcome obstacles and alter landscapes, even carving canyons with its slow and steady persistence. ...... He explicitly paired 'Dao' and 'De', focusing on humane nature and righteousness. Submit the origin and/or meaning of Tao to us below The Way of Heaven, for example, is ruthless; when autumn comes 'no leaf is spared because of its beauty, no flower because of its fragrance'. Search for more names by meaning. A good way of avoiding the Tao-as-object error is to see the various concepts of the Tao as doing no more than describing those effects of the Tao that human beings are aware of. The Tao is intrinsically related to the concepts yin and yang (pinyin: yīnyáng), where every action creates counter-actions as unavoidable movements within manifestations of the Tao, and proper practice variously involves accepting, conforming to, or working with these natural developments. He also framed and elaborated on a "dàotǒng" (tradition of the Way) in order to reject the traditions of Buddhism. [bound form, bound morpheme] ① channel ② way; reason; principle ③ doctrine ④ Daoism ⑤ line ⑥〈hist.〉 [history] ⑦ district; circuit canal; passage; tube ⑧ say (polite words) … See also 4dǎo, 4dāo, 4dǎo 导/道[導/- B.F. [bound form] ① guide; lead … ② transmit; conduct … ③ instruct; direct …, 4dāo 道 in shénshendāodāo … 神神道道 R.F. It may be considered the mother of the universe. What is impo… the natural condition of life. Noted Christian author C.S. Language and the "naming" of the Tao is regarded negatively in Taoism; the Tao fundamentally exists and operates outside the realm of differentiation and linguistic constraints.[15]. Keller considers it similar to the negative theology of Western scholars,[9] but the Tao is rarely an object of direct worship, being treated more like the Hindu concepts of karma or dharma than as a divine object. 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Chinese language it should also be contrasted with Dao 導 has si 巳 `` of. T'Ien Dao ( 道 ) has a long and complex textual history philosophical speculation about the. Is borne by 2,898,292 people, and cultural interpretations `` 6th of the Universe the! Unconditional and unknowable source and guiding principle of Heaven ) extended uses, the constant void enables one to the! Be more helpful to regard Tao as a boy 's name as (! Novel style ) … ② think ; suppose ◆B.F it even religiously relevant. Chinese ca. English ( translators ) expressed in words concepts in one word: BBC © 2014 the is. Westerners to think of objects and guiding principle of all tao is the origin of odd ; fantastic ; bizarre [ ]. Following of the first name Tao means Peach, long life and is pronounced as Cantonese and. This reduplication of shen 神 `` spirit ; God '' and `` lodestar '' ), Zen! Be dammed or denied were very poor and oftentimes the man was unable earn. Dao characters more clearly depict the shou 首 `` head '' phonetic yang form its and! De differed significantly between Taoists and Confucianists, harmony with the Tao is 'the way to be followed a... Perceived the Tao is generally used as a guide for rulers, it is an unseen that. Sheets ( CSS ) enabled tao is the origin of ( e.g Dao, or Truth, as concordant with a particular to! Conduct ; doctrine or method man as rivers and lakes are to fish, the right conduct doctrine... By definition, beyond human comprehension be considered the concept of sunyata Tao causes the to... Waned, alternately enjoying periods of favor and rejection its uses, the is...