Interpretive thesis:
The Tao as
- immanent source of everything
- that which can only be named (or known directly, intuitively), not described. ("I give its alias" 25.2)
Application to Legge translation:
named = described or adequately described
The paradox of ineffability:
X (named by "X") cannot be named.
Some (inadequate?) descriptions of the Tao by Lao Tzu:
everlasting (1.1)
nameless (1.2a)
origin of heaven and earth (1.2a)
mother of ten thousand things (1.2b)
hidden mystery (1.3b)
origin (1.4)
whirling emptiness (4.1)
inexhaustible (4.1, 5.2)
fathomless (4.1)
empty and inexhaustible (5.2)
water "near" to it (8.1)
illusive and evasive (14.2, 21.2)
et cetera