道
dào
Sino-Korean do (도) · Sino-Japanese dō / tō
way · path · method · to speak · the Way
道 — a road, hence a way of doing something, a teaching, a method; as a verb, to lead or to speak. In the Analects it is usually the Way: the right course for a person or a state, something one can "hear" (4.8), that a state may "possess" or "lack" (8.13), that the noble person devotes a life to. In the Dao De Jing it becomes the name — provisionally, since it "cannot be told" (ch. 1) — for the source and pattern of everything that is. The Chinese Union Version of the Bible renders the logos of John 1:1 with this character: 太初有道, "in the beginning was the 道."
Per-tradition readings for this term are not written yet — Phase 0 works only 仁 in full.
In the corpus (6 selected passages)
The Analects
- 1.2 有子曰、其爲人也孝弟、而好犯上者鮮矣、不好犯上、而好作亂者、未之有也。君子務本、本立、而道生… "the noble person attends to the root; the root established, the Way grows"
- 4.8 子曰、朝聞道、夕死、可矣。 "If a man hears the Way in the morning, he may die in the evening without regret"
- 15.28 子曰、人能弘道、非道弘人。 "a person can enlarge the Way; it is not the Way that enlarges the person"
Tao Te Ching
- 1 道可道，非常道，名可名，非常名；無名，天地之始，有名，萬物之母。故常無欲，以觀其妙，常有欲，… "the 道 that can be spoken is not the constant 道"
- 25 有物混成，先天地生。寂兮寥兮，獨立而不改，周行而不殆，可以為天下母。吾不知其名，字之曰道，強… "I do not know its name; I style it 道"
- 42 道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物。萬物負陰而抱陽，沖氣以為和。人之所惡，唯孤﹑寡﹑不穀，而王… "the 道 gave birth to one, one to two, two to three, three to the ten thousand things"