1. Dao and the Origin of the Great One Cult

As some scholars have demonstrated, in both received and archaeological sources of the Warring-States Period to Han dynasty, Dao is often identified with the ‘Great One'or its synonyms Da 大 (Great), Yi (One), and Taiji 太 極 (Great Pole/Ultimate), and the ‘Great One’ is further defined as the deity of the Pole Star or High God (Shangdi 上 帝 or Tiandi 天 帝).Footnote ¹

In the Lüshi chunqiu 呂 氏 春 秋 (ca. 239 B.C.), Dao is directly identified with the ‘Great One’: “As for Dao, it is the quintessence. It cannot be given a shape, nor can it be given a name. Forced to give it a name, I call it ‘Great One’”; “The myriad things were produced from the Great One”. Gao You 高 誘 glossed, “The Great One is Dao” 太 , 道 也.Footnote ² The authors of the Taiyi sheng shui also give the ‘Great One’ the style-name Dao.Footnote ³

Both the Great and the One, abbreviated or even earlier forms of the ‘Great One’, are also used interchangeably with Dao in pre-Qin to Western Han writings. In the Laozi, Dao and Da are used as ‘style-name’ and name of the mother of the myriad things.Footnote ⁴ In the same text and the Lüshi chunqiu, Zhuangzi 莊 子, Guanzi 管 子, Heguanzi 鶡 冠 子,Footnote ⁵ and Huainanzi 淮 南 子, the close relationship between Dao and the One is also remarkable.Footnote ⁶ The silk-manuscript Jing 經 unearthed from Mawangdui again testifies this identification.Footnote ⁷

Dao is then again identified with Taiji, the Great Pole/Ultimate. Xu Shen 許 慎 glossed the One as “the beginning, the Great Pole/Ultimate, Dao established from the One” 惟 初 太 極, 道 立 於 .Footnote ⁸ As the ‘Great One’ represented the deity of the Pole Star (see below), the Great Pole/Ultimate was originally a synonym for it. For example, the “Xici” 繫 辭 commentary to the Zhouyi reads, “The Great Pole/Ultimate gives birth to the Two Principles” 太 極 生 兩 儀;Footnote ⁹ while the Lüshi chunqiu reads, “The Great One gives birth to the Two Principles” 太 生 兩 儀.Footnote ¹⁰ The “Xici” again reads, “The Yi (Change) possesses the Great Pole/Ultimate” 易 有 太 極. Ma Rong 馬 融 glossed the Great Pole/Ultimate as the Pole Star, while Kong Yingda glossed it as the ‘Great One’.Footnote ¹¹

In numerous Han-dynasty texts, the ‘Great One’ is further defined as the deity of the Pole Star or High God. For example, the Shiji reads, “One of the bright stars in the heavenly pole constellation of the central palace is the regular dwelling of the ‘Great One’. . . . This is called the Purple Palace”.Footnote ¹² The Huainanzi reads, “The Purple Palace is the dwelling of the ‘Great One’”.Footnote ¹³ Zheng Xuan 鄭 玄 said, “The ‘Great One’ is the name of the deity of the North Star”.Footnote ¹⁴ Miu Ji 謬 忌, a Han Taoist specialist, told Emperor Wudi, “The most honored celestial deity is the ‘Great One’, and the Five Gods are the Great One's assistants”.Footnote ¹⁵ The Han apocrypha Chunqiu yuanming bao 春 秋 元 命 苞 states, “The star of the Great One dwells high and hides deep, so it is called the North Pole”.Footnote ¹⁶ Another Han apocrypha Chunqiu hecheng tu 春 秋 合 誠 圖 reads, “The Pole Star is the Great God of Celestial August”.Footnote ¹⁷

The Great One's identity as the deity of the Pole Star or High God has long been noted by Qing-dynasty to modern scholars. The Qing scholar Jiang Xiangnan's 蔣 湘 南 defines the ‘Great One’ as High God and the deity of the Big Dipper, which he believed to have been the Pole Star. He also indicated that the ‘Great One’ possessed the power of manipulating yin-yang, the four seasons, and the production and destruction of the myriad beings.Footnote ¹⁸ Qian Baocong's “Taiyi kao” published in the 1930s is a comprehensive study of the ‘Great One’ cult.Footnote ¹⁹ Qian cites plentiful sources to verify the Great One's identity as the deity of the Pole Star and the most honoured High God. He further describes the ‘Great One’ worship in the Han dynasty and its relationship with the divination device shi 式, a cosmic-board with a round sky mounted on a square earth rotating around a central pivot which represents the Pole or Pole Star. Although some Warring-States texts mention the ‘Great One’, most of the texts describing the cult are Han works. This reason, plus his affiliation with the academic circle of “Questioning Antiquity”, makes Qian believe that the Great One cult was the invention of the Han people, and that the ‘Great One’ was originally an abstract concept which was not identified with the cult associated with the Pole Star and its deity before the Han.

More than half a century has passed since Qian's study, and many new archaeological discoveries have greatly enhanced our understanding of the ‘Great One’ cult. Li Ling cites the “Bing bi Taisui” 兵 避 太 歲 (Weapon to repel Grand Year) dagger-axe from Jingmen 荊 門 and the bamboo-slip divination texts from Baoshan 包 山 to clarify convincingly that during the Warring States period the ‘Great One’ was already a term that implies the sense of astral body, deity, ultimate thing, and its cult in the state of Chu.Footnote ²⁰ Donald Harper further cites evidence beyond the confines of Chu to argue that the ‘Great One’ cult was not limited to Chu but a popular cult from the Warring States to Han period.Footnote ²¹

The excavation of the Taiyi sheng shui text from the Warring-States Chu tomb in Guodian in 1993 further testifies to the early appearance of the ‘Great One’ cult. The text illustrates a cosmology with the ‘Great One’ as the progenitor of the universe: the Great One gives birth to water, and water goes back to assist the ‘Great One’ to give birth to sky; then sky goes back to assist the ‘Great One’ to give birth to earth.Footnote ²² This cosmology has since become a focus of academic interest. Scholars have dug out scattered cosmological accounts which are conceptually similar to the ‘Great One’ cosmology from both received literature and other unearthed texts,Footnote ²³ and indicated its close relationship with the ‘Great One’ cult, the supreme cosmic deities, early astrology, and astrological divination devices.Footnote ²⁴ Some scholars even suggest that the rise of the use of the shi-board as a divination device during the Warring States period influenced the manner in which the cosmos was visualised, and the ‘Great One’ cosmology and cult arose in association with it.Footnote ²⁵ However, if the Great One represented the deity of the Pole Star, the origin of the ‘Great One’ cosmology and cult must have been closely related to ancient Chinese people's observation and understanding of the Pole Star. The shi-board, the astrological device with the Pole Star as its pivot, should also have been based on the same observation and knowledge, and was unlikely to be the origin of the ‘Great One’ cosmology.

It has been established that ancient Chinese astronomy was of polar and equatorial orientation. Because of their particular geographical location, the ancient Chinese concentrated their attention on the Pole Star and the circumpolar stars:

Due to the effect of the precession of the equinoxes, various stars have been identified as Pole Stars in the course of time. Some stars which have preserved their Chinese names indicate that they were at various times Pole Stars, but later ceased to be so. In about 4000–3000 bce the Big Dipper was very close to the North Pole. The first star of the Dipper is called Tianshu 天 樞 (Heavenly Pivot; α Dubhe), the same name as the Pole Star (4339 Camelopardi) during the Han dynasty. Therefore, it might have been considered as the Pole Star. Ancient Chinese people observed the directions of the Dipper handle to determine the months and seasons, as recorded in the Xia xiaozheng 夏 小 正,Footnote ²⁷ Heguanzi, and Shiji.Footnote ²⁸ Based on these, Feng Shi identifies the Pole Star cult as the Big Dipper cult.Footnote ²⁹ In earlier and later parts of the 2^nd millenium bce two circumpolar stars named Tianyi 天 (Celestial One; i Draconis) and Taiyi (Great One; 4 Draconis or 3539 Boss) might have been considered Pole Stars respectively, and in about 1000 bce another circumpolar star named Di 帝 (High God; β Ursa Minor) also seems to have been used as the Pole Star.Footnote ³⁰ According to oracle bone inscriptions, the Shang rulers frequently made sacrifices to the deity of the Big Dipper.Footnote ³¹ Even though the Dipper might no longer serve as the Pole Star in the Shang age, its traditional function as the indicator of time and seasons still made it a very significant circumpolar star.Footnote ³² Therefore, the Chinese observation and worship of the Pole Star surely appeared much earlier than the Warring States period.

The Pole or Pole Star was supposed to be located on the highest and central region of sky with all other celestial bodies moving around it, and the celestial pole corresponded to the position of the king on earth, around whom the bureaucratic system revolved.Footnote ³³ It is generally agreed that ancient Chinese state religion was of astronomical orientation.Footnote ³⁴ As Sima Qian said, “Ever since the people have existed, when have successive rulers not followed the movements of sun, moon, stars, and asterisms?”Footnote ³⁵ The practice of observing the sky centring on the Pole Star for guidance may even have emerged as early as the fifth millennium bce. In a recently discovered burial (ca. 4600–3900 bce) of Yangshao 仰 韶 culture in Henan Puyang 河 南 濮 陽, a corpse was oriented along the north-south axis, the figures of a tiger and a dragon were laid out using mollusc shells and placed to the west and east of the corpse, and a triangular figure was laid to the north, which has been interpreted as a symbol of the Big Dipper or Dixing, the Star of God.Footnote ³⁶ Other archaeological evidence also shows that burials and dwellings from the beginning of the Bronze Age were uniformly built in a cardinal orientation, with the longitudinal axis aligned in a north-south direction.Footnote ³⁷ The principle of symbolic centrality was also clearly manifested. A jade plaque discovered from Hanshan Lingjiatan 含 山 淩 家 灘 (ca. 2500 bce) is inscribed with ‘compass rose’ design with ‘arrows’ pointing from the centre to the four cardinal and four intermediate directions, which suggests the concept of a centre from which influence radiates outward to the eight directions.Footnote ³⁸ The Shang people called their state ‘Zhong Shang’ 中 商 (Central Shang), and the kings conceived themselves as “standing at the core of a series of grids – familial, spiritual, geographical”.Footnote ³⁹ The central position of royal palaces corresponded to the Pole Star, the residence whence the ‘Great One’ watched over the southerly world of men.Footnote ⁴⁰ In about 4000–3000 bce the Big Dipper might have been regarded as the Pole Star, and the Shiji actually records a legend: “The Big Dipper is the chariot of the High God”. This legend is even visualised in a Han picture as seen in the Wuliang shrine 武 梁 祠.Footnote ⁴¹ The other stars that might have been considered as Pole Stars from 2000 bce to 1000 bce were named Celestial One, ‘Great One’, and High God. These names hint at the intimate relationship between High God, the ‘Great One’, and the deity of the Pole Star. As cited above, Han texts generally identify the ‘Great One’ with High God. Although these sources are of a somewhat later date, their records are in accord with early Chinese astrological knowledge and may have had an earlier origin. For example in these texts, the Pole Star/Great One is described as the determiner of the four seasons and the controller of wind, rain and other celestial phenomena. In the oracle bone inscriptions, High God is also a cosmic god who commands the deities of Rain, Thunder, and Wind.Footnote ⁴² If Heaven was supposed to be organised around the Pole or Pole Star, and ancient Chinese state religion was of astronomical orientation, then it is reasonable that the deity of the Pole Star/the ‘Great One’ was worshipped as the supreme deity – the Di or High God during the Shang dynasty and the Tian or Heaven through the Zhou dynasty.Footnote ⁴³

2. The Origin of Dao: Face Motifs in Jade and Bronze Artifacts of Late-Neolithic Age to Yin-Zhou Period

Why is Dao identified with the ‘Great One’ or deity of the Pole Star and therefore with High God or Heaven in texts of Warring-States to Han? Sarah Allan believes that the focal meaning of dao is not a roadway, but a waterway, which is the root metaphor of the Chinese philosophical concept. Moreover, she states that dao was not simply modelled on a river that flows continuously from a natural spring, but was taken as the Celestial River that flows unceasingly from the womb of the ‘Great One’.Footnote ⁴⁴ Allan's assumption of the celestial river as the imagery of the water produced by the ‘Great One’ is brilliant, but her gloss of dao as waterway does not seem to accord with the etymological structure of the character. Through an analysis of the character dao, this study traces the original implication of the term and provides etymological and archaeological evidence for the identification of dao with ‘Great One’ /High God/Heaven.

The character dao is not seen in the oracle-bone inscriptions (though it actually appears in another form, which will be discussed below). In Western Zhou bronze inscriptions and other pre-Qin scripts, it is presented in several forms. The earliest form is a compound of two graphic constituents, shou 首 (head) and hang 行 (a picture of a crossroads, meaning to walk and move, or a road; Fig. 1a). In later forms of this graph the constituent zhi 止 foot is added (Fig. 1b), which sometimes combines with the left half of hang to form the constituent chuo 辵 to walk (Fig. 1c). This graph later became the standard character for dao. In some cases, shou 首 is written as shou , ye 頁, or yao 舀 (Figs. 1d–f); shou and ye also mean head, while yao is an erroneous form for shou. Sometimes, the constituent zhi 止 becomes the erroneous form you 又 (Fig. 1g), or adds a decorative dot to become cun 寸 (Fig. 1h). The Shuowen jiezi provides an ancient script composed of cun 寸 and shou 首 (Fig. 1i), which Gui Fu 桂 馥 defines as dao 導.Footnote ⁴⁵ However, as Peter Boodberg assumes, these are but variants of the earliest form, and the word itself combined both nominal and verbal aspects of the etymon; this is supported by textual examples of the use of the primary dao in the verbal sense “to lead”.Footnote ⁴⁶ Liu Xiang also defines dao as a verb meaning to lead and walk.Footnote ⁴⁷

Fig. 1. Dao 道.

Duan Yucai 段 玉 裁 (1735–1815) indicates that shou is the phonetic determinative in dao.Footnote ⁴⁸ According to the phonetic reconstruction of archaic Chinese by Li Fanggui 李 方 桂, both dao (*dgəwx) and shou (*skhjəwx) belong to the you 幽 rhyme group and share the same final.Footnote ⁴⁹ Peter Boodberg argues that shou is not merely the phonetic but also the semantic and expounds it from the meanings of ‘to head’, ‘to lead’, and ‘headway’.Footnote ⁵⁰ Scholars have generally acknowledged the significant role of phonetic determinatives in the semantic structure of archaic Chinese characters. In most of the cases, the phonetic is also the semantic and serves as the etymon. Through a thorough examination of the graphs identified as shou in the oracle-bone inscriptions, I have made a significant discovery on the etymon and original meaning of dao, and therefore find archaeological, iconographic evidence for the textual identification of dao with the ‘Great One’ /High God.

In the OBI, two kinds of graphs have been identified as shou. The first kind presents pictographs of a head with an eye, mouth, and/or hair (Fig. 2a–b).Footnote ⁵¹ The second kind presents two very different graphs, one being a mask-like pictograph of a frontal face wearing a protruding-topped plumed crown (Fig. 2c), and the other a pictograph of a protruding-topped crown (Fig. 2d).Footnote ⁵² In the OBI, these two kinds of graphs are used interchangeably. For example:

Here and are used in the same way with the same connotation. This verifies that the identification of the second kind of graphs of crowned mask as shou by the OBI experts is credible.

Fig. 2. Shou 首.

As is well known, the face motif (mianwen 面 紋, also called shoumianwen 獸 面 紋, animal-face motif, or shenren shoumianwen 神 人 獸 面 紋, divine-man and animal face motif) is the most important motif in jade and bronze artifacts of late-Neolithic to Shang-Zhou period. Various kinds of jade artifacts from Liangzhu culture 良 渚 文 化 (ca. 3500–2000 BC), including cong 琮, crown-shaped fittings (guanzhuang shi 冠 狀 飾), three-pronged plaques (sanchaxing qi 三 叉 形 器), awl-shaped ornaments (zhuixing qi 錐 形 器), d-shaped ornaments (huang 璜), column-shaped bead (zhuxing qi 柱 形 器), and axes, are dominated by face motifs.Footnote ⁵⁴ The fullest form of face motif is seen in the “king of cong” discovered from Fanshan, which presents a human-like figure grasping a demon-like face in its hands (Fig. 3a):Footnote ⁵⁵ the man-like face is inversely trapezoid-shaped, with staring round eyes and grinning mouth, wearing a dual headdress – inside a cap and outside a huge peak-centred, plumed crown, the demon-like face has large oval eyes and paired tusks (inners up and outers down), and the surface of the motif is filled with thunder patterns (leiwen 雷 紋). Scholars usually name the man-like face as divine-man face and the demon-like face as animal face, and together call it animal-face motif or divine-man and animal-face motif. However, as indicated by Robert W. Bagley, although the face motifs of Liangzhu jade artifacts, as well as of Shang-Zhou bronze artifacts, present some features of animals, it cannot be substantiated as any certain animal.Footnote ⁵⁶ Therefore, in reference to the works of Deng Shuping 鄧 淑 蘋, Doris J. Dohrenwend, and Jessica Rawson,Footnote ⁵⁷ this study uses the term face motif.

Fig. 3. Face motif on Liangzhu culture jades.

The thunder pattern fill-in on the mask is usually defined as coiled-cloud pattern (juanyunwen 卷 雲 紋) or cloud-thunder pattern (yunleiwen 雲 雷 紋).Footnote ⁵⁸ However, according to Rong Geng's 容 庚 study on a similar pattern on bronze artifacts, this kind of pattern should be called thunder pattern. Xu Shen describes the graph lei 靁 (雷) as “deriving from yu, lei resembling spiral-shapes” 從 雨, 畾 象 回 轉 形, and lists two ancient scripts and one zhou script (zhouwen 籀 文; (Figs. 4a–c)), of which two are added to the graph .Footnote ⁵⁹ The Song scholar Shen Kuo 沈 括 (1031–1095) once got an ancient bronze lei 罍 and observed its interweaving patterns of cloud and thunder: the thunder pattern was like the ancient script for thunder, , which symbolised the ‘spiral’ sounds of thunder, so he named the pattern as cloud-thunder.Footnote ⁶⁰ Rong Geng indicates that this kind of pattern is actually thunder pattern: “What the Song people called cloud-thunder pattern should together be called thunder pattern now. The pattern that curves to left and right like is the graph for shen 申, which is also the graph for dian 電” (Fig. 5).Footnote ⁶¹ Rong is right. In the OBI, the graph lei comprises shen (original graph for dian, lightning, and shen 神, deity) and dots that symbolise thunder sounds (Figs. 4d–f).Footnote ⁶² This structure manifests ancient Chinese people's understanding of the thunder-lightning unity – lightning as the shape and thunder as the sound.

Fig. 4. Lei 雷 (靁).

Fig. 5. Thunder motif.

Apart from some full images, most of the Liangzhu face motifs are simplified, incomplete patterns, dual or single, iconic or abstract and geometric (Figs. 3b–e).Footnote ⁶³ Scholars in general believe that those jades engraved with face motifs were ritual artifacts and the face motifs represented deities worshipped by the Liangzhu people.Footnote ⁶⁴ The shape of crown-like fittings is similar to the peak-centred, trapezoid-shaped crown worn on the divine heads (Fig. 3f–i),Footnote ⁶⁵ so these fittings should also be symbols of the divine.Footnote ⁶⁶ Since the face motifs of all the Liangzhu jade artifacts are amazingly similar, some scholars further suggest that this kind of face motif represented the deity generally worshipped by all Liangzhu people, which was possibly connected to the later concept of High God in the Shang dynasty.Footnote ⁶⁷

The plumed-crown motif painted on a pottery zun discovered from Dawenkou 大 汶 口 culture (ca. 5000–3000 bce; (Fig. 6a)) seems likely to be the prototype for the Liangzhu face motif.Footnote ⁶⁸ This pottery zun is also supposed to have been used as a ritual artifact. Its peak-centred, plumed crown is similar to the Liangzhu crowns worn on the divine heads and crown-shaped fittings, and its inverted trapezoid shape of lower part looks just like the shape of the Liangzhu divine faces. Several scholars have suggested that the demon-like face is a version of the pig-dragon motif of slit rings (jue 玦) discovered from Hongshan 紅 山 culture (ca. 4000–3000 bce (Fig. 6b)).Footnote ⁶⁹ The Liangzhu face motif then continues to appear on jade artifacts of the late-Neolithic to the Shang-Zhou period, including Shangdong Longshan 山 東 龍 山 culture (ca. 3000–2000 bce), Shijiahe 石 家 河 culture (ca. 2400 bce), Erlitou 二 里 頭 culture (ca. 2000–1600 bce), and Shang and Western Zhou period (Figs. 7a–e).Footnote ⁷⁰ Although the various kinds of face motif from different cultures had more or less altered, some basic features continued, such as staring paired eyes, peak-centred crowns, and paired tusks with inners up and outers down.Footnote ⁷¹ These motifs reveal not only material exchanges between those cultures, but also a shared and continuous religious faith from the late-Neolithic period to the Shang and Western Zhou.

Fig. 6. Crown and pig-dragon motifs.

Fig. 7. Face motif.

It is notable that the unified double face of divinity and demon in Liangzhu jades later became two somewhat different faces engraved on both sides of one jade artifact. The paired face motifs of the jade blade discovered from Rizhao Liangcheng, Shangdong cited above represent this kind of development (Fig. 6a). The paired face motifs from both sides of a jade blade preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei are quite similar to the Liangcheng motifs (Fig. 8a),Footnote ⁷² so scholars generally agree that this blade also belongs to the Shangdong Longshan culture. Smithsonian Institution preserves two bifacial jade masks (Fig. 8b–c):Footnote ⁷³ one pair is close to the Shang jade mask from Jiangxi Xingan (Fig. 6d), and the other is similar to the Western Zhou jade mask from Shaanxi Fengxi (Fig. 6e), so these two jade masks are possibly from Shang and Western Zhou respectively.Footnote ⁷⁴ The main differences between the paired faces are having or not having tusks, almond or round/spiral eyes, ‘smiling’ or ‘sad’ (comic-tragic) mouths, etc.Footnote ⁷⁵ Like the unified face motif of Liangzhu jades, these bifacial motifs may imply a divine-demonic unity or the divine commanding over the demon.

Fig. 8. Bifacial masks.

Meanwhile, as more and more scholars have agreed, the face motif of late-Neolithic jades was also assimilated into bronze artifacts and became the taotie motif (generally called animal face motif now), the most common decor in Shang and early Zhou bronze artifacts (Figs. 9a–d).Footnote ⁷⁶ There are some basic similarities between the iconography of the late-Neolithic face motif and that of the Shang-Zhou taotie motif, such as staring, paired eyes, frontal face, plumed or horned headdress, and thunder patterns.Footnote ⁷⁷ On the other hand, the taotie motif became more abstract and was confined to a prescribed standard form with striking consistence, which indicates a more unified religious belief system.Footnote ⁷⁸

Fig. 9. Taotie motif.

Now, going back to the two pictographs of shou 首, we find that they are obviously simplified, abstract forms of the face and taotie motifs discussed above. The first graph of frontal face and protruding-topped plumed crown is especially similar to the jade face ornament of Shijiahe culture (Fig. 7b), while the second graph of protruding-topped crown is close to the crown-shaped fittings of Liangzhu culture (Fig. 3f–i). Thus, we may assume that the iconography of the late-Neolithic face motif was actually abstracted into a pictograph at the latest during the Shang dynasty, and the original meaning of the pictograph should be the deities the face motifs symbolised. According to the identification of Dao with the deity of the Pole Star and High God in pre-Qin to Han writings, the deity the graph shou represented might have originally denoted the deity of the Pole Star or High God. The inversely trapezoid-shaped divine face appears consistently in all full forms of Liangzhu face motif (Figs. 3a, b, f, and i). Feng Shi asserts that it resembles the trapezoid-shaped bowl of the Big Dipper and therefore must have represented the deity of the Dipper, which was just possibly regarded as the Pole Star during the Liangzhu period.Footnote ⁷⁹ Feng's assertion seems quite convincing, as the contour of the Liangzhu divine face is very peculiar, unlike any human and animal face. In the OBI, High God is the supreme deity of the cosmos, residing in the highest heaven and commanding all the natural forces and celestial bodies, including the deities of Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Rain.Footnote ⁸⁰ In each of the two or four corners of some Liangzhu face motifs, a bird is engraved (Fig. 3f); this is in accord with the record that “phoenix is the messenger of High God” (Di shi feng 帝 史 鳳) in the OBI.Footnote ⁸¹ As discussed above, the face motifs of jade and bronze artifacts are filled with thunder patterns. The grand sounds of thunder and frightening flashes of lightning would easily make ancient people worship them as the manifestation of the heavenly power. In the Liangzhu ritual jade artifacts, the deity's cap and limbs are decorated with thunder patterns, and it grasps a demonic face which is also filled with thunder patterns. Many taotie motifs are also filled with thunder patterns. This may symbolises the supreme deity's command over or possession of the power of thunder and lightning. In the OBI, High God possesses dual personality of good and evil and dual power of reward and punishment: sometimes bestowing a harvest year, while sometimes sending down a draught; sometimes assisting humans, while sometimes bringing disasters to them.Footnote ⁸² This is in accord with the twofold face motif of divinity and demon. In addition, the Shang and Zhou people often said that High God or Heaven was overlooking their acts from heaven;Footnote ⁸³ this is also in accordance with the bright ‘eye’ of the North Star and the staring eyes of the face motifs.Footnote ⁸⁴

Then, shou was added the constituent hang 行 (to walk or move, road) to indicate the rotational movement and guidance of the Pole (Star)/Heaven.Footnote ⁸⁵ As demonstrated by the shi cosmic-board, ancient Chinese people imagined the North Pole (Star) as the pivot of heaven or the chariot of High God, which moved round itself and also led heaven and other celestial bodies to rotate around it. Both the first star of the Big Dipper and the Pole Star during the Han were actually named Tianshu 天 樞 (Pivot of Heaven), and the North Pole was named Beijishu 北 極 樞 (North Pole Pivot). The Zhoubi suanjing 周 髀 算 經 reads, “The central point of the xuanji area of the North Pole Pivot is at the central point of the north heaven”.Footnote ⁸⁶ Likewise, the Laozi describes Dao as “moving round yet never becoming weary” 周 行 而 不 殆 and “turning back is how Dao moves” 反 者 道 之 動.Footnote ⁸⁷ The Taiyi sheng shui states, “The ‘Great One’ . . . moves with the seasons, circling and beginning again” 是 故 太 . . . 行 於 時, 周 而 或 〔 始 〕.Footnote ⁸⁸ The Hanfeizi states, “The sage observed its darkness and void, applied its cyclical movement, and forcedly named it ‘Dao’” 聖 人 觀 其 玄 虛, 用 其 周 行, 強 字 之 曰 道.Footnote ⁸⁹ The use of the word hang 行 (to move) in these expressions vividly explains the original signification of the cyclical movement of the Pole (Star)/Heaven presented by the compound of shou and hang in the character dao.

In addition, as the pivot of heaven, the movement of the Pole never actually strayed from its central position, but rather functioned in the way of guiding and leading the universe to move around it. The Lüshi chunqiu reads, “The Pole Star moves together with the heaven but the Pole of Heaven does not move” 極 星 與 天 俱 遊 而 天 極 不 移.Footnote ⁹⁰ Thus, dao further derived the meaning ‘to guide’, as the Han dictionary Shiming 釋 名 glosses, “Dao, to guide, to penetrate and guide the myriad things” 道, 導 也, 所 以 通 導 萬 物 也.Footnote ⁹¹

When used as a noun, dao first of all denotes the meaning of the course and order of Heaven. Many scholars have indicated that for the Taoists Dao was not the course of life in human society but the course in which the universe worked.Footnote ⁹² The Wuxing 五 行 from both Guodian and Mawangdui emphasizes: “Dao is the course of Heaven” 道 也 者, 天 道 也.Footnote ⁹³ The Zhuangzi reads, “In the past those who elucidated the ‘Great Dao’ first elucidated Heaven and then way and virtue” 古 之 明 大 道 者, 先 明 天 而 道 德 次 之.Footnote ⁹⁴ This also indicates that the ‘Great Dao’ is first referred to ‘Heaven's way’ and then extended to connote “human's way and virtue”. The Laozi states that “weakness is the function of Dao” 弱 者, 道 之 用,Footnote ⁹⁵ while the Taiyi sheng shui reads, “The course of Heaven values weakness” 天 道 貴 弱.Footnote ⁹⁶ Here Dao and Tiandao are used interchangeably. According to the Zuozhuan, the court historiographers, diviners, physicians and music masters already had a cosmology in which the course of the celestial bodies was called the course of Heaven.Footnote ⁹⁷ Thus, when the ‘Tuan’ 彖 commentary to the Zhouyi states that “observing the divine Dao of Heaven with the four seasons [proceeding] without error, the sage established the divine Dao as the teaching, and all under Heaven obeyed it” 觀 天 之 神 道 而 四 時 不 忒, 聖 人 以 神 道 設 教 而 天 下 服 矣,Footnote ⁹⁸ the term ‘divine Dao’ implies the divine nature of the Dao of Heaven/High God. Indeed, in the Laozi and many other early writings, the Dao of Heaven is always set as the fundamental and model for the course of humans.

It is notable that in the OBI, there is a graph that comprises ren 人 (human) and hang 行, which is sometimes added the constituent zhi 止 (foot, to walk) or kou 口 (mouth; (Figs. 10a–c)).Footnote ⁹⁹ This graph is also seen in bronze, seal, bamboo, and Stone-drum inscriptions. Some scholars have asserted that this graph should be glossed as dao 道.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ This assertion is now verified by the Guodian texts. In the Guodian Laozi (A) this character is used to replace dao in the received text, and the same kind of usage is also seen in the Guodian texts Xing zi ming chu 性 自 命 出, Liude 六 德, and Yucong (A) 語 叢 .Footnote ¹⁰¹ The original meaning of this character was the movement of humans, or roads for human traffic, so as to differentiate from the character dao 道, the movement or course of Heaven. In addition, in the OBI, the character dao is often used before or after the character wang 王 (king) to express the meaning of “to extol the king” or “the king says”.Footnote ¹⁰² Thus, another verbal meaning of the character dao 道, ‘to say’, may have been derived from the meaning of “to extol the High God” or “the High God says” expressed in ancient divinations and sacrificial performances.

Fig. 10. Dao .

In addition, as is a general rule for characters of common etymon in early writings, the two characters dao and shou are used interchangeably. For example, there is a phrase “shoude” 首 德 in the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Shihong gui 師 訇 簋. Some scholars define it as “changde” 常 德 (constant virtue),Footnote ¹⁰³ but it is more reasonable to gloss it as “daode” 道 德. The expression “ji dao” 稽 道 in the Yi Zhoushu 逸 周 書 was cited as “ji shou” 稽 首 (to kowtow) in the Qunshu zhiyao 群 書 治 要, and the expression “zhui shou” 追 首 recorded in the Shiji was written as “zhui dao” 追 道 (to recall and state) in the stele inscriptions.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ Thus, dao also connotes the meaning of the supreme deity – the ‘Great One’ or High God. The Laozi states that Dao “images the forefather of High God” 象 帝 之 先, and further describes it as a shadowy image, object, and essence.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ If we define the image of Dao as the face motif which symbolised the supreme deity and first appeared in prehistoric period, even before the appearance of the graph Di 帝 (High God) in the OBI, then the meaning of these lines would become very clear. After Di or Shangdi was used to represent the supreme deity, the original meaning of shou or dao gradually became blurred, and dao 道 and dao gradually intermingled.

In some early texts of pre-Qin to Han, however, the divine origin of Dao is still mentioned occasionally. Donald Harper thinks that the Taiyi shengshui text “provides a Warring States precedent for a deity in charge of genesis”.Footnote ¹⁰⁶ As mentioned above, the “Tuan” commentary to the Zhouyi names Dao as “divine Dao of Heaven”. The Zhuangzi describes Dao as “inspiriting demons and gods and giving birth to heaven and earth” 神 鬼 神 帝, 生 天 生 地.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ In the Heguanzi, Dao is named “the Dao of the Great One” 泰 之 道 and the “sacred Dao of divine region” 聖 道 神 方, and is described as a personified divinity with “the heaven and earth acting in its chest, and then completing everything outside” 彼 天 地 動 作 於 胸 中, 然 後 事 成 於 外.Footnote ¹⁰⁸ The Liji records that before the Son of Heaven departed for an expedition, he would make a sacrifice to the High God. In another part, the same text records that before the lord of a state departed to visit the son of Heaven or other lords, he would make a sacrifice called Dao.Footnote ¹⁰⁹ In the second case, traditional commentaries gloss the Dao sacrifice as a sacrifice to the spirit of the road. In addition, there is a phrase “dao Dao” 禱 道 (making sacrifice and praying to the Dao) in the bamboo inscriptions of Warring-States Chu discovered from Hubei Jiangling Tianxingguan 江 陵 天 星 觀, which scholars interpret as “making sacrifice and praying to the spirit of the road”.Footnote ¹¹⁰ However, the spirit of the road was actually called ‘Hang’ 行 during the Warring-States period.Footnote ¹¹¹ The Dao sacrifice might have originally been a sacrifice to Dao/High God as in the first case, but because the original implication became blurred, later it was just understood literally.

3. Laozi: Redefining Dao

Starting from the mid-Western Zhou or a little earlier, some fundamental changes in bronze decoration occurred. In general, the face themes became more abstract, simplified, and geometric, and lost their previous effect of solemnity and mystery. The taotie motifs dissolved into an unrecognisable, dismembered pattern or were minimised to a subsidiary role.Footnote ¹¹² As time went on, by the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period, most people seem to have forgotten the original meaning and function of this Shang and early Zhou decor. In the Lüshi chunqiu, the taotie is already described as a monster that devours human.Footnote ¹¹³ Correspondingly, in the intellectual writings of this period, interests in the Dao of Heaven (tiandao 天 道), the movement and course of Heaven, and its relationship with the course of human society seem to surpass interests in the High God itself, although it and other celestial divinities were still reverently extolled. Correlative cosmologies of various kinds sprung up. Dao or tiandao became the favourite word to replace di/tian or shangdi/huangtian. These changes may reflect the new development of calendrical and astronomical knowledge. Scholars generally agree that the system of the twenty-eight celestial lodges and the establishment of calendar reached maturity during this period.Footnote ¹¹⁴ People of this period realised that “the movement of heaven has its constant [course]” 天 行 有 常,Footnote ¹¹⁵ and were generally interested in the natural, seasonal cycle of cosmos. On the other hand, as myths faded away, the original religious connotation of Dao, the ‘Great One’, and the Great Pole/Ultimate became blurred and concealed behind the symbols of the progenitor and the course of the universe. “The art of ‘Dao’ is breaking down for all under the heaven” 道 術 將 為 天 下 裂,Footnote ¹¹⁶ and “the disputers of Dao” had to seek and redefine its meaning and nature according to their own calendrical and astronomical knowledge, religious faith, philosophical thinking, and socio-political concern.

The authors of the Laozi were among those enthusiastic searchers, and perhaps the earliest of them. The character dao appears in the Laozi 69 times, and many other names and images are also used to refer to it. The opening lines, “The Dao that can be spoken of is not the constant Dao; the name that can be named is not the constant name”,Footnote ¹¹⁷ and other similar statements in the text, have led many scholars to explore the theme of the ineffability of Dao in the text. “That however is not quite what it wants to say”, A. C. Graham indicates, “The trouble with words is not that they do not fit at all but that they always fit imperfectly”.Footnote ¹¹⁸ With new light shed by the religious origin of the Dao as representing High God and the movement of Heaven, I argue that the central concern of the authors of the Laozi was to redefine the identity of Dao, or in other words, to make this name/term that had become ineffable on the one hand and confused with the ordinary human course on the other, along with the fading of myths, again effable by a new set of discourse common to their time, and also to clarify the confusion concerning the relationship of Dao with the ordinary name of human course. The character ming 名, name, appears 24 times in the received Laozi, which reveals the authors’ eager concern of naming or renaming. Naming or renaming was a general concern of the thinkers of the “Axial Age,” and, as indicated by Graham, they usually did not seek to know what the ultimate reality was in a thing, but rather were concerned with how to name it correctly and comprehensively.Footnote ¹¹⁹ In Chapter Fourteen of the Laozi, after talking about how the Dao cannot be seen, heard, touched, and named, the authors then clearly indicate that if one holds fast to the Dao of antiquity, he can apprehend the thread running through Dao. The remote antiquity here refers to the origin of Dao, as well as the origin of the universe that Dao gave birth to. On the other hand, the authors of the text did not simply return to the age of myth, but also seek to rationalise the age-honoured divinity with all the knowledge of their time − astronomy, astrology, cosmology, life and political philosophy. As a result, the text keeps a balance between religion and philosophy, from which it produces the perpetual, stimulating power of the text: rational yet mystical, philosophical yet religious.

The multiple names, terms, and images in the Laozi are thus used not to illustrate ineffable metaphysical entity, but to redefine the origin, identity, nature, movement, and function of Dao. As already discussed above, the Great and One as other names of Dao imply its origin as the ‘Great One’, the divinity of the Pole Star or High God, and the images and themes of returning and circling describe the rotational movement of cosmos, with the North Pole (Star) as the central pivot and all other celestial bodies rotating around it. The names and themes of constant, void, nature, and non-action also become transparent from this new perspective. Since the North Pole represents the highest and central pivot that never moves away, it is the only constant thing in the cosmos. Both the Chu bamboo-manuscript Hengxian 恒 先 (Constant Antiquity) in the Shanghai Museum collection and the Mawangdui silk-manuscript Daoyuan 道 原 (The Origin of Dao) use “constant antiquity” to define dao. The former reads, “In the constant antiquity, there is non-being but plainness, still, and void” 恒 先 無 有, 質, 靜, 虛. The latter reads, “At the beginning of the constant antiquity, totally the same as the Great Void; vacuous and the same, it was the One; being the One constantly, it was nothing more” 恒 先 之 初, 迵 同 大 虛, 虛 同 為 , 恒 而 止.Footnote ¹²⁰ The One refers to the ‘Great One’, the deity of the North Pole/Pole Star, as the Huainanzi reads, “When heaven and earth are totally the same, like a chaotically uncarved block, and the myriad things have not been made of and completed, this is called the Great One” 洞 同 天 地, 渾 沌 為 樸, 未 造 而 成 物, 謂 之 太 .Footnote ¹²¹ The North Pole is the pivot of Heaven and the aligner of time and space, but it is a void region in heaven itself in ancient Chinese imagination (see below). It is from this void region that the universe and the myriad things are given birth, so “the myriad things under heaven were born from Something, and Something from Nothing” 天 下 萬 物 生 於 有, 有 生 於 無.Footnote ¹²² The void pivot of heaven is like the hub in a cart: “adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the cart” 當 其 無, 有 車 之 用.Footnote ¹²³

Dao/the deity of North Pole (Star) is a cosmic divinity and force. It is the only constant thing and the only progenitor in the cosmos, so it is ‘self-so’ (ziran 自 然) and ‘chaotically formed’(hunching 混 成). Dwelling at the highest and central point of heaven, it naturally attracts the universe and myriad things to move around it, so as to form the celestial and seasonal cycles. The Lunyu reads, “The Master said, ‘To conduct government by virtue may be compared to the North Star: it occupies its place, while the myriad stars revolve around it” 為 政 以 德, 譬 如 北 辰, 居 其 所 而 眾 星 共 之.Footnote ¹²⁴ Thus, “Dao never acts yet nothing is left undone” 道 常 無 為 而 無 不 為.Footnote ¹²⁵ As Victor H. Mair indicates, “Wu-wei does not imply absence of action. Rather, it indicates spontaneity and non-interference; that is, letting things follow their own natural course”.Footnote ¹²⁶

The Laozi is exceptional for its use of feminine names and images. Throughout the text, Dao is explicitly called the Mother in five different chapters,Footnote ¹²⁷ and many other feminine images and terms such as valley, female, motherly love (ci 慈), water, weakness, and softness are also frequently used. Some modern scholars interpret the feminine images as based on typical feminine attributes in a traditional patriarchal society.Footnote ¹²⁸ This interpretation, however, can not explain the pervasive and sincere exaltation of the feminine throughout the text. From our new perspective, these feminine images are again based on Dao's original relationship with the North Pole/Pole Star and Heaven, and are also significant in defining the identity and quality of Dao within the framework of naming and renaming.

The Dao/North Pole is void in nature, and thus it is wu 無 (Nothing) and does not need a name. When it gives birth to the universe, however, it becomes you 有 (Something) or the One – the single progenitor of myriad things. The process of production is described as biological ‘sheng’ 生, to give birth, in a genealogical succession: Dao gives birth to the One, the One to the Two, the Two to the Three, and the Three to the myriad things.Footnote ¹²⁹ This generative process is described concretely in more detail in the Taiyi sheng shui cosmology,Footnote ¹³⁰ as well as other similar cosmologies presented in the Lüshi chunqiu, Huainanzi, and so forth. More importantly, Dao starts the generative process without another partner. Therefore, the gender of this progenitor is determined as feminine and she is named Mother – “the named is the Mother of the myriad things”; “All under heaven has a beginning, and this beginning is the Mother of all under heaven”.Footnote ¹³¹ Mother is thereby the signifier of the existence and function of Dao. After giving birth to myriad things, Dao continues to feed and nourish them with its impartial motherly love.Footnote ¹³²

According to the Zhoubi suanjing 周 髀 算 經, ancient Chinese people believed that the region of the North Pole was hollow and column-shaped, standing between heaven and earth, and protruding to the highest and central position of heaven, in which “the Yang is blocked off and the Yin manifests itself, and nothing is grown there” 陽 絶 陰 彰, 故 不 生 萬 物.Footnote ¹³³ Sunlight never reaches this region, so it is dark, void, still, and cold, filled with Yin.Footnote ¹³⁴ The images of void valley and dark feminine (xuanbin 玄 牝) in the Laozi resemble this region, which is the ‘root of heaven and earth’ and an inexhaustible source of myriad things.Footnote ¹³⁵ The ‘Valley Spirit’ (Gushen 谷 神) that has baffled generations of readers becomes quite clear now – it should refer to the deity of the Pole Star, the deity of the valley-like hollow Pole region. Dao never claims merits for what it has done and practices ‘the teaching of wordless’,Footnote ¹³⁶ because the region of the North Pole is always quiet, and Heaven is forever silent. The Lunyu records, “The Master said, ‘What does Heaven ever say? Yet the four seasons go round and the hundred things are given birth. What does Heaven ever say’ “天 何 言 哉? 四 時 行 焉, 百 物 生 焉, 天 何 言 哉''.Footnote ¹³⁷ The Mengzi also states: “Heaven does not talk but simply displays its movement and phenomena” 天 不 言, 以 行 與 事 示 之 而 已 矣.Footnote ¹³⁸ As a result, the authors of the Laozi advocate holding fast to the female, darkness, and stillness, and returning to the root and infancy.Footnote ¹³⁹ Although Dao/the Pole Star is the progenitor and aligner of the cosmos, it yields itself to an inconspicuous position and never dominates the cosmos – it is not as bright, spectacular, and dominant as the sun, the moon, and many other celestial bodies. Moreover, the heaven which Dao dwells in and represents is more tenuous and soft than the earth, as the Laozi states, “The strong and big takes the low position, while the soft and weak takes the high position”.Footnote ¹⁴⁰ Therefore, yieldingness, softness and weakness also become the celebrated qualities of Dao.

4. De: The Impartial Virtue and Power of Heaven

Among all the names, images, and terms used to define dao in the Laozi, the most important one is undoubtedly de 德, yet another difficult term to define. De, translated variously as ‘virtue’, ‘power’, or ‘potency’ in English, appears 33 times in the received text. Many qualities attributed to dao, such as impartiality, humbleness, femininity, non-action, void, and softness, are also attributed to de.Footnote ¹⁴¹ Nevertheless, the text also makes it clear that de is the secondary category which follows and subordinates to dao.Footnote ¹⁴²

As a matter of fact, the earliest structure of the character de is quite similar to that of dao. In the OBI of the Shang period and the bronze inscriptions of early Western Zhou, the graph de is comprised of zhi (to erect, upright, impartial sight) and hang 行 or the left half of hang (Figs. 11a–c). During the Western Zhou, de was added the constituent xin 心 (heart, mind), which was sometimes added another constituent zhi 止 (Figs. 11d–e). In Warring States scripts, de was often written as de 惪, which was sometimes added the constituent yan 言 (Figs. 11f–g).Footnote ¹⁴³

Fig. 11. De 德.

Both zhi (*drjək) and de (*tək) belong to the zhi 職 rhyme group and share the same final in archaic Chinese.Footnote ¹⁴⁴ Zhi and de were used interchangeably; for instance, in the Guodian manuscripts Wuxing and Tang Yu zhi dao 唐 虞 之 道, zhi is used as de, or vice versa,Footnote ¹⁴⁵ so zhi is undoubtedly the etymon.Footnote ¹⁴⁶ In the OBI, zhi depicts an eye surmounted by a central, vertical line (Fig. 12a);Footnote ¹⁴⁷ in the bronze inscriptions, it is added the constituent and a dot in the straight line as decor (Fig. 12b), which further changed into shi 十 (Fig. 12c).Footnote ¹⁴⁸ The Shuowen jiezi lists zhi's ancient script as , which was added the constituent mu 木 (Fig. 12d), and glosses zhi as ‘impartial sight’ (zhengjian 正 見).Footnote ¹⁴⁹ However, ‘impartial sight’ is a later derivation, and the original meaning of zhi should be to erect a vertical pole (zhimu 木) to observe and measure solar shadow and other celestial bodies. The Xunzi reads, “It is like erecting a vertical pole but fearing its shadow to be curved – nothing is more bewildered than this”.Footnote ¹⁵⁰ “Vertical pole” is what the Huainanzi called “pole of solar shadow” (yingzhu 景 柱),Footnote ¹⁵¹ or the Zhoubi suanjing's record of “erecting a pole to measure solar shadow” 立 竿 測 影, which is also called biao 表, bi 髀,Footnote ¹⁵² nie 槷, yi 杙, or nie 臬,Footnote ¹⁵³ the earliest gnomon. Joseph Needham indicates, “The most ancient of all astronomical instruments, at least in China, was the simple vertical pole. With this one could measure the length of the solar shadow by day to determine the solstices, and the transits of stars by night to observe the revolution of the sidereal year”.Footnote ¹⁵⁴ Ancient people erected a vertical pole on the floor to observe and measure its shadow under sunlight, or tied a cord to the top of the pole and sight on a star along the cord to observe its revolution. This kind of observation is in accord with zhi's structure of an eye surmounted by a vertical line. The template used to measure the shadow's length was called tugui 土 圭, which later combined with the pole to become guibiao 圭 表, whose shape was just like the constituent added to zhi's original graph (Fig. 12e).Footnote ¹⁵⁵ Therefore, may represent the developed gnomon.

Fig. 12. Zhi and gnomon.

As discussed above, the Shuowen lists zhi’s ancient script as , i. e. zhi . Zhi and zhi are homonyms and used interchangeably. For example, the “Xiaoming” 小 明 poem in the Shijing reads, “Quietly fulfill the duties of your offices, loving the just and upright” 靖 共 爾 位, 好 是 正 .Footnote ¹⁵⁶ When both the Ziyi from the Guodian and Shanghai Museum manuscripts cite this couplet, zhi is written as zhi .Footnote ¹⁵⁷ In the Wuxing from Guodian, zhi is used as zhi .Footnote ¹⁵⁸ In pre-Qin to Han writings, zhi means huzhi 戶 (a vertical wood used to lock gate), wood pole, to erect, and to establish. The Shuowen glosses, “Zhi means huzhi” , 戶 也.Footnote ¹⁵⁹ The Mozi 墨 子 reads, “The vertical wood and transverse wood of the gate must be strong” 門 關 必 環 錮. Sun Yirang 孫 詒 讓 annotates, “Zhi is a vertical wood to lock a gate, and guan is a transverse wood to lock a gate” , 持 門 木; 關, 持 門 橫 木.Footnote ¹⁶⁰ The text again reads, “There are four zhi in each tower” 樓 四 . Sun Yirang glosses, “Four zhi means four pillars” 四 即 四 柱.Footnote ¹⁶¹ The Lüshi chunqiu reads, “They zhi laws and regulations together” 相 與 法 則 也. Gao You 高 誘 glossed, “Zhi means to establish” , 立.Footnote ¹⁶² These meanings must have derived from zhi’s original meaning of erecting a pole to observe solar shadow. Then, Zhi and zhi are further used interchangeably with zhi (to establish, plant, to breed) and zhi 置 (to erect, to establish, to arrange), and therefore zhi must also be the etymon for these two characters.Footnote ¹⁶³

When did the Chinese people first “erect a pole to measure solar shadow”? Joseph Needham dates this in the Shang dynasty,Footnote ¹⁶⁴ while Feng Shi puts it even earlier to the pre-historic age.Footnote ¹⁶⁵ All the astronomical observations recorded in the Zhoubi suanjing are based on that simple pole. For example, the text records the observation of the xuanji 璇 璣 or the North Pole region as follows:

“The large star in the middle of the North Pole” refers to the Pole Star, and the xuanji circle is the circular area drawn by the North Star's circling of the North Pole, which ancient people believed to be the region of the North Pole.Footnote ¹⁶⁷ Based on the observations of gnomon, Zhoubi suanjing establishes the model of gaitian 蓋 天 (heaven as a chariot-canopy) cosmography with the North Pole as its core. For example, the diagram of the seven imaginary celestial circles 七 衡 圖 is centred on the pole (Fig. 13).Footnote ¹⁶⁸

Fig. 13. Diagram of seven celestial circles 七 衡 圖.

In order to obtain correct data of celestial observations, the pole must be erected vertically and midmostly. The Zhouli records, “Erect a pole with cords to observe solar shadow”. Zheng Xuan annotated, “In the middle of level floor, they erect a pole of eight chi and use cords to make it vertical. Then, they observe its shadow to fix the four directions”. Jia Gongyan commented, “In order to get the shadow of the pole, they must erect the pole vertically. In order to erect the pole vertically, they must overhang cords on the four corners and centres of the pole. They overhang eight cords, and when all the cords are attached to the pole, it is vertical”.Footnote ¹⁶⁹ The pole erected in the middle of the observation site is called zhongzheng biao 中 正 表, the midmost and upright gnomon.Footnote ¹⁷⁰ As a result, zhi and zheng 正 (correct, upright), zhongzheng 中 正 (fair and correct), and gongzheng 公 正 (just, fair) become synonyms, and zhi and zheng even combine to form the word zhengzhi 正 (correct and upright). For example, the “Shuo shu” 碩 鼠 poem in the Shijing reads, “Happy state, happy state, there we shall be dealt with righteously” 樂 國 樂 國, 爰 得 我 . Zheng Xuan glossed, “Zhi is the same as zheng 正.”Footnote ¹⁷¹ The Wuxing from Guodian reads, “The central heart is clear and acts uprightly, this is zhi” 中 心 辯 然 而 正 行 之, () 也.Footnote ¹⁷² The Hanfeizi reads, “What we call zhi means to be just, with a fair-mind without any partiality” 所 謂 者, 義 必 公 正, 公 心 不 偏 黨 也.Footnote ¹⁷³ The Shangshu reads, “Without partiality, without deflection, the royal course is level and easy. Without perversity, without one-sidedness, the royal course is just and upright” 無 黨 無 偏, 王 道 平 平. 無 反 無 側, 王 道 正 .Footnote ¹⁷⁴

To the ancient Chinese, the Pole Star and other celestial bodies were all deities, and the observation of those celestial bodies was sacred, so was the vertical pole used for the observation. As a result, zhi was extended to indicate the upright, impartial observation and quality of High God/Heaven. The Laozi reads, “To the course of Heaven none is more akin than another; it is constantly on the side of the good man” 天 道 無 親, 恒 與 善 人.Footnote ¹⁷⁵ The Shenzi 申 子 reads, “The course of Heaven is impartial, and this is what we call constant uprightness” 天 道 無 私, 是 謂 恆 正.Footnote ¹⁷⁶ The ‘Tuan’ commentary to the ‘Guan’ 觀 (Observing) hexagram in the Zhouyi reads, “[Heaven/Ruler] observes all under heaven with impartial and upright sight” 中 正 以 觀 天 下.Footnote ¹⁷⁷ The “Xiaoming” 小 明 poem in the Shijing reads, “Quietly fulfill the duties of your offices, loving the just and upright. When the spirits listen to this, they will bestow you large measure of bright happiness” 靖 共 爾 位, 好 是 正 . 神 之 聽 之, 介 爾 景 福.Footnote ¹⁷⁸ The Zuozhuan cites Shi Yin's 史 嚚 words as follows, “If a state is going to prosper, [the king] listens to the people; when a state is going to fall, [the king] listens to the God. The God is bright and upright and holds the One; its movement follows the people” 國 將 興, 聽 於 民; 將 亡, 聽 於 神. 神, 聰 明 正 而 壹 者 也, 依 人 而 行.Footnote ¹⁷⁹ Zhi and dao 道 are further combined to form the phrase zhidao 道 or zhengzhi zhi dao 正 之 道. The Analects reads, “These common people are the touchstone by which the Three Dynasties were kept to the upright course” 斯 民 也, 三 代 之 所 以 道 而 行 也.Footnote ¹⁸⁰ The Hanfeizi reads, “The lord and the subject are not of blood relations, so if the just and upright course is beneficial, the subject will do his best to serve the lord” 夫 君 臣 非 有 骨 肉 之 親, 正 之 道 可 以 得 利, 則 臣 盡 力 以 事 主.Footnote ¹⁸¹

Then, zhi was added the constituent hang 行 to form de 德. On one hand, de is used interchangeably with zhi to represent the upright, impartial virtue of Heaven; on the other hand, it carries verbal meaning and represents the movement and power of the upright, impartial course of Heaven.Footnote ¹⁸² Both the Wuxing texts from Mawangdui and Guodian read, “Goodness is the course of human, while impartiality (de) is the course of Heaven” 善, 人 道 也; 德, 天 道 也.Footnote ¹⁸³ According to Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, the ultimate owner of de was Heaven/High God, who frequently bestowed de down to selected people. Those people then reverently preserved, brightened, held fast and passed it on to their descendents. For example, the Shi Qiang pan 史 牆 盤 inscription reads, “High God has sent down exemplary de” 上 帝 降 懿 德. The Analects reads, “Confucius said, ‘Heaven has endowed de in me’” 天 生 德 於 予.Footnote ¹⁸⁴

In the OBI, nevertheless, de is often used as a verb and related mainly with either military expeditions or sacrifices. This has confused many scholars and led them to conclude that this graph bears no direct relation to the Zhou term de.Footnote ¹⁸⁵ However, if we remember Duke Kang of Liu's words recorded in the Zuozhuan, “The major undertakings of a state are sacrifice and war” 國 之 大 事, 在 祀 與 戎,Footnote ¹⁸⁶ the signification of de in the OBI will become understandable. The Guanzi states, “When initiating major undertakings, they apply the way of Heaven. For this reason, when the former kings launched punitive attacks, they attacked only those who opposed them and not those who were obedient. . . . They attacked the rebel − this is called wu (military way), and left the subordinate alone – this is called wen (civil way). Both wen and wu are completely fulfilled – this is called ‘de’ 舉 大 事 用 天 道. 是 故 先 王 之 伐 也, 伐 逆 不 伐 順. . . . . . . 貳 而 伐 之, 武 也; 服 而 舍 之, 文 也. 文 武 具 滿, 德 也.Footnote ¹⁸⁷ Both wende 文 德 and wude 武 德 were the most important ‘de’ Heaven bestowed on human kings. King Wen and King Wu of Zhou, who claimed they had marvellous de bestowed on them and the mandate from Heaven,Footnote ¹⁸⁸ were traditionally regarded as representatives of the perfect civil de and military de respectively. The Shangshu records, “The three de [of the perfect sovereign]: the first is called correctness and uprightness, the second strong subdual, and the third soft subdual” 三 德 ： 曰 正 , 二 曰 剛 克, 三 曰 柔 克.Footnote ¹⁸⁹ It further illustrates that, in times of peace, the perfect sovereign would naturally take the course of correctness and uprightness; in times of violence and disorder, the perfect sovereign would take the course of strong subdual; in times of harmony, the perfect sovereign would take the course of soft subdual. Strong subdual is military de, while soft subdual is civil de. The de expeditions recorded in the OBI, especially in cases where de and fa 伐 (to send a punish expedition) are combined to form a compound predicate, may be interpreted as stereotypical declarations of expeditions with a just cause. For example:

Sometimes, the diviner explicitly expressed that High God would confer assistance on the just expedition:

The Liji cites the King of Wu's words, “When dispatching an army, there must be a name (cause)” 師 必 有 名.Footnote ¹⁹² “De/Zhi” 德/ may have been the earliest name for launching a war. According to the Zuozhuan, King Cheng of Chu cited the Junzhi 軍 志 (an ancient military text), saying: “When an army possesses de, it is invincible” 有 德 不 可 敵. The same text also records Zifan's 子 犯 words, “When an army is just, it is strong; when an army is unjust, it is weak” 師 為 壯, 曲 為 老. It again records Han Wuji's 韓 無 忌 words, “To correct unjust is just” 正 曲 為 .Footnote ¹⁹³ “Zhi/De war or army” is the war or army of correcting the unjust; this is a perfect footnote for “de fa” 德 伐.Footnote ¹⁹⁴

This study shows that dao, the focus of intellectual concerns and disputes of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States period, was originally a symbol of the deity of the Pole Star or High God, and it went through an evolution from supreme deity to cosmic order during this period. The redefinition of dao by the authors of the Laozi reveals a balance between religion and rationality, theistic ideas and natural philosophy. They implicitly mention the divine origin of dao from time to time, thus covering the text with a mystic veil, but more often they emphasise dao as the heavenly course and cosmic order, representing a perfect model for human course and social order. De, in relation to dao, originally represented the impartial virtue and power of Heaven. The last chapter of Zhuangzi describes the authors of the Laozi as “dwelling alone serenely with the spirits and numinous” 澹 然 獨 與 神 明 居, and summarises their “art of dao” (Daoshu 道 術) as “established in constant non-being, dominated by the ‘Great One’, gentleness, weakness, modesty, and humbleness as its manifestations, and void yet without damaging the myriad things as its substance” 建 之 以 常 無 有, 主 之 乙 太 , 以 濡 弱 謙 下 為 表, 以 空 虛 不 毀 萬 物 為 實.Footnote ¹⁹⁵ The authors of the Zhuangzi chapter clearly understood the religious connotations of dao in the Laozi, and their summary truthfully conveys the basic ideas of the Laozi.