Dao: the Way
Daoism and Confucianism are the two main traditional Chinese philosophy schools. However, their English names are rather misleading. In English, Confucianism is named after Confucius, the great Chinese sage. But in Chinese, it is called Ru Jia, or the School of Scholars. Great as Confucius is, Confucianism is not the theory of Confucius, but rather the theory of scholars. In fact, Confucianism had existed long before Confucius was even born.
As for Daoism, its name is misleading even in Chinese. Apparently, Dao is what the Daoist School pursues. However, Dao is also the goal of other Chinese people. Confucius talked about Dao all the time. Other minor schools all talk about their Dao. Ordinary people go after Dao. Even thieves seek to have Dao. So, what is Dao?
Literally, Dao means the Way. Here we can see that English and Chinese have similar metaphors at this point. In both languages, the original meaning of the word is a road or a path for travel from place to place. Also in both languages, it metaphorically means the manner or method of being, doing or happening. So, no wonder everybody talks about it. They all have their own beliefs on the way world is being and have their own ways of doing things. The central theme of Chinese traditional culture turns out to be finding out the Way, or the law of the universe, making one’s own way abide to the nature’s Way, and implementing the right Way.
That said, we can see that the pursuit of Dao is also older than the Daoist School. However, the founder of the Daoist School, Laozi, reasoned on the Way with great elaboration and subtlety. He argued that there is something that runs everything, that existed even before the creation of the universe. This something is so great that he did not know its name, so he had to constrainedly call it the Way. Another sage from the Daoist School, Zhuangzi, argued that the Way is everywhere. The Way is great, yet you can find it in even the lowest dirt. They are so influential that people began to call them Daoist even though other people talk about Dao, too.
Later, Daoism gradually took on a religious feeling. So today’s Dao has at least three meanings, among others: the religious Dao, the philosophical Dao of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the general Dao pursued by all decent Chinese scholars.
