The following is a philosophical explanation, which is a bit complicated.
Tao is an important category of China's ancient philosophy. Used to explain the origin, ontology, laws or principles of the world. In different philosophical systems, its meaning is different. Laozi's Tao is the origin and universal law of the universe; The Tao Te Ching written by Laozi is a classic about Tao. The "Tao" mentioned by Confucius is the "golden mean" and a method; What Buddhists call "Tao" is the "middle way", the highest truth of Buddhists. Be reasonable, don't go to extremes. From both sides, it is the middle way. Buddhism's Tao is the thought of the middle view, which involves "the middle way" and "emptiness". The thought of "emptiness" seems empty but not empty, so we can't seek emptiness with emptiness. Tao: You take a song, the first time you take a road, the first time you use a method called Tao, and repeating what others have done is not called Tao. Find another way and persist in innovation to make a living. Heaven: all beings are fish, Tao is a net, and river is heaven and earth. The fisherman who closes the net is the fate of heaven and earth.
original intention
There is no word "Tao" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but it is in the inscription. Its image is to hold the head with hands or hide it directly in clothes (see figure), which means to cover the head with clothes to indicate the path a person must take to reach his destination, but it plays an important role in walking.
Blindfolded, it is generally difficult to keep balance when walking. Cover your head with clothes and feel your way forward. If it is not our desired destination, no one will take a strange road like being fooled. Covering your head is really closely related to walking. If we are suddenly blindfolded, the first feeling is that we can't move. Modern psychological research has proved that people's eyes are balanced. Therefore, the word "Tao" in bronze inscriptions should refer to a strange road that must be taken to reach the destination. This may be the reason why the ancients only used the word "Tao" to express abstract concepts such as truth, law and law, such as the way of governing the country, the way of being a man, the way of keeping in good health and so on. The prototype of Daozi is a human head and a snake body.
As shown on the right, its source is Fuxi's legend of the head snake. The original meaning of Tao refers to the road and the smooth road, and later it gradually developed into a truth to express the regularity of things. This change has gone through a long historical process. In the Book of Changes, there are "What is the responsibility of returning to the Tao" (small livestock), "smooth road" (trampling) and "coming back after seven days of returning to the Tao" (repetition), all of which mean the Tao.
"Shang Shu Hong Fan" said: "Nothing is not done well, just follow Wang Zhidao; Do all kinds of evil and take the road of being king. Without partiality or partisanship, the king swings; Without the party and the public, the king is flat; There is no opposition, and the king is upright. " Tao here has the correct meaning of laws, norms and regulations, which shows that the concept of "Tao" has developed in an abstract direction. Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period once said: "I heard that villains can become enemies, and the path is big." The so-called Tao, loyal to the people and believing in God "and" Wang Lu exhausted, the Tao of Heaven also ". Tao here has a regular meaning, which shows that the concept of Tao has gradually risen to the philosophical category.
Laozi's Taoist theory
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Laozi first regarded Taoism as the origin and universal law of the universe and became the founder of Taoism. Before Laozi, people only inferred the origin of everything to the sky, but did not touch whether the sky had an origin. When I arrived at Laozi, I began to infer the source of heaven and put forward a way. He believes that everything in the world is born of Tao. He said: "things are mixed, born, lonely, independent and unchanging, and can be the mother of the world." I don't know its name, the word says, it is strong, it is big and fleeting, and it is far away. " (Chapter 25 of Lao Zi). There have always been different interpretations of what Laozi said. Some people think that Tao is the spiritual noumenon and the highest principle that exists independently of material entities, and claim that Laozi's theory of Tao is objective idealism. Others think that Tao is an inseparable unity of chaos in the primitive state of the universe, and claim that Laozi's theory of Tao is materialism. Laozi believes that the process of Tao generating all things in the world is "Tao gives birth to one, two, three and all things" (Chapter 42). After the Tao generates all things, it is contained in the universe itself as the basis of the existence of all things in the world. Tao is universal, all-encompassing and all-encompassing. Although Tao exists in the universe, it is different from tangible things that can be felt. It is invisible, deaf and irresistible, and it is what constitutes the same essence of all things in heaven and earth. Therefore, "Tao" exists outside people's language, pictures and texts, and the mind can perceive it, but it cannot express and illustrate it. -it is not something that the sensory organs can feel, nor can it be expressed by ordinary words. It can only be explained by metaphor and description. For the unification of the world, Lao Tzu made a genius speculation and description. Laozi's Taoist theory has a far-reaching influence on later generations. It is also said that "the Tao gives birth to one, and the whole life gives birth to two", which means that the original qi is produced in an unknown place, and this source is divided into two kinds of qi: yin and yang. In this case, Tao is nothingness, that is, no one knows it, no one can determine it, that is, it is unknown and mysterious. Because of the unknown characteristics of Tao, the more you draw conclusions about Tao, the more wrong you are. When the Tao refers to unknown things, the sentence "Tao gives birth to one and gives birth to two" is often considered as "one", which refers to the source, and this source and this "one" are considered as known, explainable and qualitative "Tao" by many people who hold other views. Therefore, the Tao referred to by this "one" is the theory of yin and yang, and it is one of many Tao theories.
Evolution of Taoism
Fan Li, who is slightly behind Laozi, thinks that heaven is the law of development and change of things. He believes that personnel must be "in harmony with yin and yang and conform to the nature of heaven and earth", and violation of objective laws will inevitably lead to disaster. Madam, things must be related to heaven and earth, and then you can succeed. By "Heaven", he mainly refers to the contradictory movement law of Yang to Yin, Yin to Yang, surplus to contraction, and endless conflicts. Take the initiative to retreat when the weather is unfavorable to you, and take the initiative to attack when the weather is favorable. Influenced by Laozi's Taoist theory, Fan Li said that "the sky is full but not overflowing, prosperous but not arrogant, and you don't reward your work" (in Mandarin and Vietnamese). However, he advocated timely and positive progress and criticized and revised Laozi's thought of valuing softness and keeping women. During the Warring States Period, the Taoist family in Xia Ji, Qi explained the Tao with "essence", and regarded the empty and invisible Tao as "essence" flowing between heaven and earth and existing in all things. He said: "Where there is a way, there is no glory without roots, stems and leaves. Everything is born, everything is achieved, and life is said. ..... the essence is also the essence of qi. Airway is life "(pipe industry). Laozi once described Tao as "rushing gas" and said that "there is essence in it". Xia Ji's Taoism further developed Laozi's thought from the perspective of materialism, and expressed Taoism as the ubiquitous essence of life. The theory of essence and qi had a great influence on the later development of traditional Chinese medicine. But it endows the essence with spirituality, tends to be mysterious, and cannot draw a clear line with idealism. Zhuangzi was a representative of Taoist school in the middle and late Warring States Period. He believes that Tao is the ultimate source of the world, an all-encompassing, all-encompassing and eternal universe, and denies any master who transcends Tao. He also believes that it is impossible to put forward a clear stipulation on Tao, that is, "the name of Tao is not correct" and "it is clear but not Tao". Even if it is named Tao, it is "vain". Therefore, it can only be said that "the husband and the Tao are affectionate and credible, and inaction is invisible; Transmissible but unacceptable, accessible but invisible; Since its roots, there is no heaven and earth, and there have been ghosts and gods since ancient times; Before Tai Chi, it was not high, under the six poles, not deep, born, not long, longer than ancient, not old "("Tai Shang Lao Jun "). For Zhuangzi's Tao, some people in the current academic circles think it is the absolute spirit of independent self-existence and transcending time and space, and prove that Tao is the creator of immateriality with the language of "material immateriality" in Zhuangzi. Others think that Tao refers to a material noumenon with infinity and eternity, resulting in the coexistence of heaven and earth, and based on the language of Zhuangzi, it is explained that Tao is the gas of matter. Most scholars believe that Zhuangzi exaggerates the mystery of the origin of the world, absolutes the relativity of things, and denies the differences between things, which is manifested in relativism. His Taoist theory has obvious idealism tendency. Han Fei absorbed and developed Laozi's simple dialectics, put forward a theory about the relationship among Taoism, morality and reason, and dialectically handled their relationship. He believes that "Tao is the beginning and source of all things", "what all things are" and "what all things are made of". Take Tao as the universal law of the material world and the universal basis for the existence and development of all things in the world. He also believes that "Tao" is the ultimate category and universal law of all things, and the special essence of all things is "virtue", and "virtue is the merit of Tao"; The special law of all things is "reason" and Tao is "the source of all things". The relationship among Taoism, morality and reason is the dialectical unity of universality and particularity, infinity and finiteness of the material world. During the Warring States period, the Confucian scholar Yijing also put forward the theory of "Tao", which was considered as the universal law of the mutual transformation of opposites. The book of changes "cohesion" says that "one yin and one yang are the Tao", and the mutual transformation of one yin and one yang is the Tao. He also said: "The metaphysical refers to the Tao, while the metaphysical refers to the device", and regards the Tao as an invisible abstract law, which is different from tangible concrete things. In the Song Dynasty, Zhang Zai took Tao as the process of gasification, saying that "from gasification, there is a name for Tao"; Cheng Yi and Zhu Ze are based on Tao, which embodies the difference between Qi-based theory and Reason-based theory. In the history of China's philosophy, the category of Tao was put forward by Taoism and later accepted by various theories. Although there are different understandings, it has become synonymous with the origin of the universe and the universal laws of the universe. It has improved the level of theoretical thinking and explored the origin and laws of things.