ABSTRACT
In this section, I focus on the first six-character aphorism, that is, (1)，on the Dao, which is also called “ the (first) opening statement of the Dao-De-Jing” in this essay. As far as the first opening statement is concerned, in one crucial connection under discussion, the preceding standard interpretation might even assume the standard paraphrase. In his article “ On the Opening Words of the Lao-Tzu” , Herrlee Creel reviews twenty-nine English translations of the opening passage. Among them, as Creel sees it, the standard pattern is used in fourteen translations, if some rearrangement and some use of synonyms are tolerated. As I see it, all those twenty-nine translations examined in Creel’s article seem to share the same core structure regarding the opening statement to the effect that the Dao (as a noun) that can or may be dao (as a verb) is not the chang-Dao.
