Laozi · Daodejing · 第二十五章
Read the witness. Inspect a construction. Follow the evidence.
Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
吾不知其名，字之曰道
I do not know its name; I style it “Dao”.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
53 Han characters · 37 distinct forms · 12 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
有物混成，
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 7 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 曰 × 5 不 × 3 天 × 2 兮 × 2 而 × 2 為 × 2. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
Make this passage yours.
Use the reading guide above, build your interpretation, then test what you can recover. Your notes and schedule stay on this device.
1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
Select a source unit, then hide the passage and reconstruct it. This checks textual recall, not understanding.
3 · Explain, then revisit
Which verb takes 之 as its object?
Compare the editorial answer
字, used as a verb of naming.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 吾不知其名，字之曰道
.
Rate your understanding yourself. These reminders use a simple schedule; they do not certify mastery.
Study controls are loading. Reading prompts and source links work without JavaScript.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
韓非子 · 揚權第八不知其名不知其名，復脩其形。形名參同，用其所生。二者誠信，下乃貢情。
韓非子 · 外儲說左上第三十二不知其名鄭縣人有得車軛者，而不知其名，問人曰：「此何種也？」對曰：「此車軛也。」俄又復得一。問人曰：「此是何種也？」
莊子 · 大宗師第六先天地生極之先而不為高，在六極之下而不為深，先天地生而不為久，長於上古而不為老。狶韋氏得之，以挈天地；伏戲得之，以襲氣母；
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Recover the object學而時習之論語 · Recover the object未之有也論語 · Recover the object雖曰未學，吾必謂之學矣論語 · Track whose, which, and whose perspective父在，觀其志；父沒，觀其行Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 老子 · Laozi · Daodejing
- Attribution
- Traditionally attributed to Laozi; composition and textual history are debated.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR5c0057 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR5c0057_025.txt, lines 14–25. LAO 25.1; tr. D.C. Lau 19i2: 37; here tr. Karlgren 1975
- Version
8f585085ff4ef2580eeb0f4376a763a62bcc7a95- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: ce3af196af240544d046d1d2471988d3e1b666b8a65bc436b18f85453009c010. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.