Tao (in
Wade-Giles romanization, which is
misleading in terms of representing
pronunciation) or Dao (Pinyin) means many
different things. In
Chinese language and culture it is ubiqitous, primarily because its
bandwidth of meanings is so large and
vague. It's fundamental meaning is that of a "
way" in the sense of a "way of"
doing or
knowing or
behaving or
speaking of something.
Christian missionaries used "dao" for "
logos" in their translations of the
Gospel of
John. Thus,
"In the beginning was the Dao. And the Dao was with god..."
Many contemporary constructions of Taoism (or Daoism) bear little or no relation to previous historical versions. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes these are naive, sometimes much more profound those that came before.