Taking Laozi’s Dao as the Energy God: Dialogue with Laozi’s Dao in the Frameworks of Philosophy and Religion

This article seeks to introduce a novel perspective on understanding Laozi’s Dao as the “Energy God” by engaging with existing philosophical and religious frameworks. Conceptualizing Laozi’s Dao within a philosophical framework fails to capture the fluidity, simplicity, liveliness, and directness inherent in the Daodejing. Conversely, the personification and deification of Laozi within the religious framework do not sufficiently address the formlessness and namelessness of the Dao. Retaining its original characteristics, Laozi’s Dao transcends both philosophical conceptualization and religious deification. Inspired by the term “Energy God”, two fundamental attributes of Laozi’s Dao emerge. First, Laozi’s Dao reflects a specific value judgment that consistently regards the lowly and the simple as virtuous, while perceiving the high and complex as detrimental. Second, as the Energy God, Laozi’s Dao possesses a profound power that animates and propels all things, yet resists being reduced to a mere tool. In its role as the Energy God, the Dao eludes conceptualization and objectification; it is fundamentally omnipresent throughout the universe.