About the name: Taoism or Daoism

There are two commonly used systems for translating the Mandarin Chinese language into Roman letters:

• Wade-Giles: This system is commonly used in Taiwan and the U.S. The Chinese character for “Way” becomes “Tao,” which leads to the English word “Taoism.”
• Hanyu pinyin or Pinyin: This system was developed by the Chinese people and is now finding increased use worldwide. The “Way” becomes “Dao,” which leads to the English word “Daoism.” The “Dao” is pronounced like the “Dow” in “Dow-Jones Index.”

We have chosen to emphasize the “Taoism” spelling. A Google search for “Taoism” returned 245,000 hits, whereas a search for “Daoism” returned only 35,000.