Names and variants
- Simplified
- 乾道
- Traditional
- 乾道
- Other names
- Qian Dao, Male Daoist
- Pinyin
- Qián dào
- English
- Qiandao
Overview
The context determines whether qiandao refers to a person or to a cosmological idea. Qian symbolizes Heaven and also supplies the male association in the clerical designation. When the term describes Daoist people, compare it with kundao, the corresponding designation for women, and daoshi, the broader term for a Daoist religious practitioner. The personal and cosmological senses should not be treated as interchangeable.
References
- [1]Dictionary of Daoism