The etymology of the word dao (道) has nothing to do with warriors. Some uninformed person seems to have slapped that on the Wikipedia article and now it has become a New Age cyber-fact.

It is horseshit. "Dao" is a simple word which combines two basic radicals: "movement" and "ahead". It has nothing to do with "warriors". One thing that plagues Daoism (especially in cyberspace) is nonsense things said about various Chinese words, usually by white New Agers who either read no Chinese or rudimentary Chinese or by Chinese New Age authors trying to sell their books and sound "hep" to white New Agers.

In any event making up nonsense is not part of Daoism and I never really saw the reason for it. Daoism has a very long and interesting history with plenty to learn and admire without the pseudo-cyber facts.

Take care,
Brian the Wordsmith

Where was that link for definitions of Trolls?

Will we get a ban/spam icon eventually?

Perhaps the "Taoist Discussion" forum needs to be broken into separate sections so it is easier to navigate if you are looking for information or help. This would be better than the run of random posts.

I saw we have over 7,000 members now and the atmosphere is turning a little sour. A review of the forum is much needed.

Apologies my friend ... that uninformed person promogulating "horseshit" seems to be myself. I am humbly more knowledgable now than I was yesturday. Perhaps you should take this misinformation up with wiki and change it there.

*bows politely*

I felt it was an interesting fact as it seems that warriorship and sageship seems consistent within the great tradition of Tao.

horseshit!!!!!!


What a funny word. We dont use that in England. Which is strange really, as we have horses here, and they certainly do shit.


Even more oddly, when I want to vividly express the utter wrongness of something, I often say "What a load of old tripe."


Hardly anyone nowadays knows what tripe actually is. Maybe one day I will read in Wiki that it is a form of pasta that policeman used to eat on thusdays.

And what will I say then?!

Speaking of Chinese characters, does anyone know the etymology of the character for jing/essence/semen? A friend was asking me about this recently. Who can tell me?

I got a private message about my "rudeness". Note that I did not criticize anyone by name in this thread, and I did not know who posted it on wikipedia and in fact I do not care. As one could read in my post I wrote "it is horseshit", meaning the fact, not the person. The person I simply called "uninformed".

I was as civil as I could be and I am not sure an apology is in order. But to keep the peace I will make one. I am sorry to Mr. Stigweard for saying anything and as long as I am doing the mea culpas, I am sorry to Taomeow for saying less than kind things about Ms. Eva Wong's translations.

Brian L. Kennedy

Ok. Now, would you rather fall into a load of horseshit or a load of old tripe?

I'll take horse shit any day. The stench of rotting carcass tends to linger

i like the description of the character 'Dao' as is given in Cleary's "Opening the Dragon Gate":

there the grand master tells young Wang Liping:


" “The word for the Way which we use as a convenience, is pregnant with hidden meaning.

First two dots are written. The left one symbolizes light, the right one symbolizes darkness, as in the symbol of the absolute wherein yin and yang embrace each other. These two dots represent the sun and the moon in the sky, water and fire on earth, and the two eyes in human beings, which seem to reverse their light and gaze inwardly in the course of refinement exercises.

Under these two dots is written a single stroke, meaning ‘one,’ which represents the totality of all things.

Below this, the graph for ‘self’ is written, refering to oneself, meaning that everything in the universe is in one’s own body, and the Way is not apart from oneself.

When the above pieces are assembled, they form the word ‘head,’ which signifies that practice of the way is the best and most essential thing one can do in the world.

Finally the sign for ‘walk’ is written, meaning to travel or operate, signifying the natural working of the teaching throughout one’s whole body,
the Way being carried out in one’s own body, the Way being carried out in the whole world.

These are the meanings contained in the structure of the character for the Way.” "

Hehehe ... it seems I stand corrected twice. It was merely an interesting coincidence that I referenced this very same wiki entry in another thread just prior to your new thread. A thousand apologies My Kennedy.

Let us continue in good faith.

How do you like your tea?

Hello Mr. Kennedy- & Affenbrot

thanx for the etymology... and I don't think we need to watch our steps over every wordy dropping that we each make -the testyness is rife 'round here these days -

reading of old tripe has me nostolgic for England where I lived at one time (near St. Albans)...

The spirit of good will is nurtured and language is just words anyway...Sifu S has lent an ear and learned something as I did too...

this sharing what we know thing may still work out for us...


namaste

Hi Brian. I just read in a different thread that you are miffed by my commenting on your term "horseshit".

hmmmmmmm. sorry.


I did it because I wanted to blur the edge of your agressive tone. To lighten the mood.

It wasnt me who pm'd you about your 'rudeness', that isnt my style.


Would you have preferred it that I had pm'd you to tell you that your tone was way too harsh?

I just thought of another reason why falling into a load of horseshit would be better than falling into a load of old tripe. You are far less likely to be attacked by Polar Bears when covered in Horseshit!

Having recovered from the Polar Bear attack (who knew they would like tripe) Should we try to update Wiki ?
(Anyone remember the link in question)