Taoism
Taoism's ultimate is the Tao, the Way: not a creator God but the nameless source and pattern of all things, which the Tao Te Ching says can only be named provisionally. Most names below are the Tao Te Ching's own images for the Tao; the last ones belong to later Taoist cosmology and religion and are marked as such.
- Tao (the Way)道
The Way: the source of heaven, earth and all things, and the natural pattern they follow.
The opening line warns that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the constant Tao.
Tao Te Ching 1, 25 ↗ - The Nameless無名
What has no name: the Tao before any distinction or label, the beginning of heaven and earth.
Ascribed to the Tao. Chapter 32 says the Tao, in its constancy, has no name.
Tao Te Ching 1, 32 ↗ - Mother of all things萬物之母
The nurturing source that gives birth to and sustains every being.
Ascribed to the Tao once it is named; chapters 25 and 52 call it the Mother of the world (天下母).
Tao Te Ching 1, 25, 52 ↗ - The Mysterious玄
The dark and deep: 'mystery upon mystery', the gateway of all subtle wonders.
Ascribed to the Tao and to the unity of the named and the nameless.
Tao Te Ching 1 ↗ - The Valley Spirit谷神
The spirit of the valley that never dies: empty, receptive and endlessly productive.
Ascribed to the Tao.
Tao Te Ching 6 ↗ - The Mysterious Female玄牝
The dark womb whose gate is the root of heaven and earth; used without ever being exhausted.
Ascribed to the Tao, in the same chapter as the Valley Spirit.
Tao Te Ching 6 ↗ - The Uncarved Block樸
Unworked wood: original simplicity before it is cut into separate uses and names.
Ascribed to the Tao, and to the simplicity the sage returns to.
Tao Te Ching 28, 32, 37 ↗ - The One一
The undivided unity by which heaven is clear, earth is steady and spirits are potent.
Ascribed to the Tao or its first expression; chapter 42 says the Tao gave rise to the One.
Tao Te Ching 39, 42 ↗ - The Great大
The name given 'by force' to the Tao: great, and so ever-flowing, far-reaching and returning.
Ascribed to the Tao; the text admits it does not know the Tao's true name.
Tao Te Ching 25 ↗ - Ziran (Self-so)自然
Being so of itself: spontaneous naturalness, which the Tao takes as its own model.
Ascribed to the Tao's way of being: the Tao takes what is so of itself as its model.
Tao Te Ching 25 ↗ - Heaven and Earth天地
The cosmos as a whole: the sky that covers and the earth that bears all things.
Not the Tao itself but its first products; they are impartial, treating all things alike (chapter 5).
Tao Te Ching 1, 5 ↗ - Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate)太極
The Great Pole: the primal unity from which yin and yang divide.
Zhuangzi places the Tao even before the Taiji. Later Taoist and Neo-Confucian cosmology made Taiji central.
Zhuangzi 6 ↗ - The Jade Emperor玉皇大帝
The supreme ruler of heaven in popular and religious Taoism, presiding over gods and spirits.
Later religious Taoism (from about the Song dynasty); not found in the Tao Te Ching or Zhuangzi.
Jade Emperor (reference) ↗