Dao

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Dào
Dao
Chinese spelling
Long characters 道
Abbreviation 道
Pinyin dào ( dao 4)
Wade-Giles tao 4 ( tao 4)
Jyutping dou 6 ( dou 6)
Japanese spelling
Go-on reading
Kanji 道
Kana ど う
Hepburn do
Kunrei do
Kan-on reading
Kanji 道
Kana と う
Hepburn tō
Kunrei tō
Kun reading
Kanji 道
Kana み ち
Hepburn michi
Kunrei michi
Korean spelling
Hangul 도
Hanja 道
RR do
MR to
Yale to
Vietnam. Spelling
Quốc Ngữ đạo ( dao )
Chữ nôm 道

Dào ( Chinese  道 , Pinyin dào , Jyutping dou 6 ) literally means “way”, “road”, “path” and in the corresponding context also means “method”, “principle”, “the right way”, teaching or school - in the sense of a school of thought u. v. A., which corresponds to the word in Confucianism . The translation only roughly approximates the abstract content of the word in the Daoist context, because the Dàodéjīng des Lǎozǐ presented the Dào for the first time as a kind of transcendent supreme reality and truth.

Characters

The Chinese character for Dao ( 道 , dào , tao , Jyutping dou 6 ) is made up of the character shou ( 首 , shǒu , Jyutping sau 2 ), which means “head” (formally for “ head ”), and something like that called radical or determinative chuo ( 辶 / 辵 , chuò , Jyutping coek3 ) with the meaning of "go / stamp" together.

Meanings

Dào cannot be translated

Traditionally, Dào is rendered as "The Way". Modern Sinology considers it better to use it untranslated as an independent term, since the content is too comprehensive for one word.

『吾 不知 其 名。
字 之 曰 道』

I don't know its name, that's
why I call it "Dào".

(from chapter 25 of the Dàodéjīng ( 道德 經 ) by Lǎozǐ ( 老子 ) )
Taiji - The symbol for the universal Yin and Yang

In Chinese, too, authors say, the meaning of Dao goes beyond words. Dao is used differently by different schools and cults. Words were among the fleeting appearances of language. Language cannot convey ideas about a reality that is constantly changing. The Dao is deeply rooted in Chinese thought and lifestyle. Confucianists, Buddhists, and Daoists all speak of the same thing, even if they explain the Dao differently. A Daoist piece of wisdom from Master Zhuangzi :

“Words are there to convey thoughts; we want to keep the thoughts and forget the words. "

Dào in western philosophical terms

In Daoist Chinese philosophy, Dào denotes an eternal active or creation principle that is responsible for the origin of unity and duality and thus for the creation of the world (the "ten thousand things"). From Dào arise the polarities Yīn and Yáng and thereby the opposites, from the interplay of which change, movement and mutual penetration and thus the world result. Dào is all-encompassing and means both the dualistic areas of the material world and the transcendent areas beyond duality. The Dào is therefore both a principle of immanence and transcendence. It represents the highest state of being. In its transcendent function, as undifferentiated emptiness, it is the mother of the cosmos, as an immanent principle that which pervades everything (compare “ the one ” of ancient Greek philosophy) .

Lǎozǐ about Dào

Lǎozǐ - the father of the Dàoist doctrine - already found an old doctrine of the Dào. What he liked about this old teaching was that the Dào could be viewed as something pure, but the “ten thousand things” (what was there) as defective. He decided to live in the purity of the Dào, from which he developed the idea of ​​the connection between being and non-being , which creates the great unity of life. In the sense of this lively connection between contradictions, he often explained the Dào in contradicting expressions.

According to Lǎozǐ, the Dào produces the unity, the unity produces the two, this then the three and this finally the manifested world of ten thousand (≅ means: countless, infinite, all) things ( 萬物  /  万物 , wànwù ). This can indicate that the Dào is the potentiality of all forms, because it is more than the unity. At the same time it stands for the force that pervades the entire creation process and creation. Since the Dào includes everything, including the opposites of emptiness ( 無  /  无 , wú ) and existence ( 有 , yǒu ), it cannot actually be described with western philosophical terms. Thus the explanations of Chinese philosophy always have the paradox attached. It can e.g. B. not to be said of the Dào that it possesses an existence , because that would mean excluding its non-existence or emptiness ; but if one said it did not exist, one would deny its appearance in the fullness of the manifested world.

Zhuangzi on the Dào

Zhuangzi , the author of the traditional Dàoist standard work The True Book of the Southern Blossom Land , decided on a different variant of the already existing Dào doctrine: He understood the Dào above all as the moving thing and as the principle of life. The Dào determines the path of the world and moves all things. The "ten thousand things" are always changing. The Dào is incredibly wide and without shape. It unites death and life, it connects heaven and earth and can be reached through enlightenment.

The Dào connects the “ten thousand things” in such a way that one no longer wants to turn to the individual. The emphasis on the Dào as a movement was reflected in his decision to present his views in conversations and also in his emphasis on the possibilities of human beings to change.

Dào in literature

In the terms of classical Daoist literature, the Dào appears as an unfathomable, vast and eternal pure spirit , the mother of the cosmos. It is also the all-pervading, the comprehensive and the goal of existence, even non-being, but also the origin of existence. It works without activity or intention; things emerge from it and maintain their order. The Dào causes all change and yet is itself empty and without activity. It orders without ruling, and every being and thing has its own Dào, its own path, which is why it is considered wise to follow the Dào by practicing inaction , Wúwèi ( 無爲  /  无为 ), for the Dào organizes itself, and one should not interfere with this natural order.

Dào is irrational

The Dào is best understood as an all-encompassing principle, purely rationally inaccessible. Man should disturb it as little as possible through conscious action and striving, but rather live in harmony with the law in a mystical- intuitive way. But not only humans have a part in the Dào, each thing and being has its own Dào, its own path. Every being is unique in its changes and developments on its way, and through the constant flow, the Dào reveals itself as movement and change that indicates the experience of existence and not the understanding of rigid intellectual concepts.

Dào in the I Ching

In the comments on the I Ching ( 易經  /  易经 , Yì Jīng ), this primal principle is called Tàijí ( 太極  /  太极 ). The term Dào led Lǎozǐ in the Tao Te Ching as a synonym one for Taiji. However, it already existed before the Dàodéjīng, and Confucius ( 孔子 , Kǒngz benutzt ) also uses it, albeit in the sense of "acting the (right) way". Only Lǎozǎ gave the term Dào the comprehensive meaning of the absolute operating principle.

Other comprehensive principles

In the history of Daoism, other forms of comprehensive principles were also associated with the Dào. So it is Tàixū (太虛), the great void, as well as Tàiyì (太 易), the principle of change, and in a limited form also Tiān (天), the sky, source and expression of order. The Dào as an immanent principle that pervades all being is a principle of change ( 易 , Yì ) and flowing ( 氣  /  气 , Qì ), but not in a chaotic form, because the Dào also effects the natural order of things, and the changes in the Dào are cyclical.

In traditional Chinese culture, Dào is a key principle for many areas of science and art (e.g. martial arts - wushu , medicine , martial arts , painting , calligraphy , tea ceremony ).

Key principle of Chinese culture

In the Japanese arts, the name syllable DŌ (= Dào, 道 ), in addition to its literal meaning “way”, is also an indication of the spiritual dimensions and the influence of the Dào on the practice of the individual disciplines, e.g. B. Budō ( 武 道 ), Bushidō ( 武士道 ), Kendō ( 剣 道 ), Iaidō ( 居 合 い 道 ), Kyūdō ( 弓 道 ), Aikidō ( 合 気 道 ), Jūdō ( 柔道 ), Sadō ( 茶道 ), Shodō ( 書 道 ) and Kadō ( 花道 ).

By dissolving the opposites (e.g. through Daoist meditation ) the Dào practitioner (see Daoism ) can experience Dào - but according to Lǎozǐ one cannot describe Dào .

道 可 道 非常 道
名 可 名 非常 名
無名 天地 之 始
有名 萬物 之 母

The namable Dào is not the absolute (eternal / permanent) Dào.
The nameable name is not the absolute (eternal / permanent) name.
The nameless is the origin of the universe (of heaven and earth).
The named is the mother of all things (of the ten thousand things).

(from chapter 1 of the Dàodéjīng (道德 經) by Lǎozǐ (老子) )

literature

  • Gellért Béky: The world of the Tao . Pages 217 to 243: Bibliography lists the most important European and American publications on the subject. Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1972
  • Jean C. Cooper: What is Daoism? The way of the Tao - an introduction to the ancient wisdom of China . Translated from the English by Ulli Olvedi. Barth: Bern / Munich / Vienna 1993. 175 pp. ISBN 3-502-62112-8
  • Lukas Maria Weber: Nietzsche and Dao. The way from truth to wisdom. Exemplary series literature and philosophy, 33. Sonnenberg, Annweiler 2013, ISBN 3-933264-72-3

Web links

Wiktionary: Dao  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Term "do / to (道)", English / Japanese: [1] on tangorin.com, accessed on March 2, 2018 - online
  2. ↑ Term "do / to (道)", German / Japanese: [2] on wadoku.de, accessed on March 2, 2018 - online
  3. ↑ Term “dao (道)”, Chinese / English: [3] on zdic.net, accessed on March 2, 2018 - online
  4. ↑ Term “dao (道)”, Chinese / German: [4] on leo.org, accessed on March 2, 2018 - online
  5. ↑ Term "shou (首)", Chinese / English: [5] on zdic.net, accessed on March 9, 2018 - online
  6. ↑ Term “shou (首)”, Chinese / German: [6] on leo.org, accessed on March 9, 2018 - online
  7. ↑ Term “shou (辵)”, Chinese / English: [7] on zdic.net, accessed on March 9, 2018 - online
  8. ↑ Term "shou (辵)", Chinese: [8] on dict.revised.moe.edu.tw, accessed on March 9, 2018 - online
  9. ↑ See Philip Rawson et al. Laszlo Legeza: Tao. The philosophy of being and becoming. Munich / Zurich 1974, pp. 7-10.
  10. ↑ Zhuangzi , chap. XXXI.
  11. ↑ Cf. Richard Wilhelm: Introduction to Laotse: Tao Te King - The Old Book of Meaning and Life. Düsseldorf / Cologne 1952, pp. IV4-XXIII23. - Alexander Noll: Women in the Dào. Roles of women in old China - away from the mainstream . Munich 2016., p. 32.
  12. ↑ Cf. Richard Wilhelm: Introduction to Dschuang Dsï: The true book from the southern blossom country. Düsseldorf / Cologne 1972, pp. 7-26 - Alexander Noll: Women in the Dào. Roles of women in old China - away from the mainstream. Munich 2016., p. 32.