The ‘Dao’ (or ‘Tao’) is the core of the Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching). The entire text, composed of roughly five thousand Chinese characters, is dedicated to explaining this ‘Dao.’ Yet, Laozi laments from the very beginning that the ‘Dao’ cannot be clearly defined. It is akin to truth or reality—no definitive conclusion can ever be drawn about them. No matter how earnestly we strive, we only approach them incrementally, never fully grasping eternal truth or reality. Thus, Laozi chose to speak of the Dao by describing what it is not.
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