In the Ningpo and Shanghai dialects the character is read dao, and in the various dialects of Fuhkeen and Kuangtung it is read tu, while in Japan it is read du generally.[1]
One of the earliest meanings of the character, and that from which many of the others are derived, is that of Way or Road. Thus used, the word is nearly or quite synonymous with certain others, such as ti (迪), t'u (途 also written 塗), and lu (路). Of these, the first and second are often met with in the classical literature, but are not much used at present. Lu, however, is still a very common word, and it is often added to tao as a defining suffix. Thus tao-lu is a road, as distinguished from tao-li, a principle. But lu is also very commonly used alone and is interchanged with tao. It is properly any road or path in common use, while tao is a recognized highway, but the distinction is not by any means strictly observed, and the "Shuo-wên" explains lu by tao. The difference between the uses of the two words is shown in the ninety-second of the Hundred Lessons in the "Tzŭ Erh Chi." There the speaker says that his party went astray having left the proper highway (tao), but that by making inquiries as they followed the path (lu) they were in, they at last reached the lock. A tao is said to be a way for one to take,—it is to be tao (蹈), or walked on; while a lu is so called because it is made apparent, (lu 露), by having been trodden; the former is made to be used and the latter is made by use. When combined, the two words, tao-lu, sometimes mean simply a road, and sometimes they denote highways and byways, as in the "Chou-li," where Biot translates "routes et chemins."[2]
In this sense of way or road, tao is often found preceded by certain words which particularise its application. A few of the combinations of this kind are here given, and specially of those which are used in more ways than one. The term chou-tao (周道) denotes the main road to the Chou State, as lu (魯)-tao
