Ziran
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For other uses, see Ziran the Tester.
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Ziran (Chinese: 自然; pinyin: zìrán; Wade-Giles: tzu-jen) is a key concept in Daoism that literally means "self so; so of its own; so of itself" and thus "naturally; natural; spontaneously; freely; in the course of events; of course; doubtlessly".[1][2] This Chinese word is a two-character compound of zi 自 "nose; self; oneself; from; since" and ran 然 "right; correct; so; yes", which is used as a -ran suffix marking adjectives or adverbs (roughly corresponding to English -ly).
Look up 自然 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Ziran first occurs in the Daodejing (17, 23, 25, 51) and refers to the structure of Tao, which cannot be referred back to anything else.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Lao Zi's Concept of Zi Ran. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
[edit] References
- ^ Slingerland, Edward G. (2003). Effortless action: Wu-wei as conceptual metaphor and spiritual ideal in early China. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press, p.97. ISBN 0-19-513899-6.
- ^ Karyn Lai. Learning from Chinese Philosophies: Ethics of Interdependent And Contextualised Self (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series). Ashgate Publishing, p.96. ISBN 0-7546-3382-9.
