how to translate 丹道 into English?

[awaken]

I am trying to write my thoughts about dan dao into a book these years.

I have written more than 80,000 words. 

A student from Singapore tries to help me to translate these articles into English.

He asked me how to translate 丹道.

I said I usually use "dan dao". 

But I am not sure if it is right or wrong.

Could anybody tell me how to translate 丹道 into English?

Thank you.

[Kar3n]

1 hour ago, awaken said:

I am trying to write my thoughts about dan dao into a book these years.

I have written more than 80,000 words. 

A student from Singapore tries to help me to translate these articles into English.

He asked me how to translate 丹道.

I said I usually use "dan dao". 

But I am not sure if it is right or wrong.

Could anybody tell me how to translate 丹道 into English?

Thank you.

From my understanding...

Trajectory- simply stated is a path an object or person follows

[YFS]

If you are also asking opinions whether we think saying dan dao is right or wrong, I'd say it depends on your intended audience. If you are writing for people familiar with this, go for it. Otherwise it has to be explained.

 

Personally, when translating texts I translate 丹道  as Daoist alchemy.

[awaken]

Kar3n, YFS,

 

Thank you.

[Shubin]

It seems that you might want to use "内丹" or “外丹“ instead of “丹道”。

 

"Daoist alchemy" may be an acceptable translation of 丹道, but the definition of "alchemy" does not cover 内丹, at least in this dictionary, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alchemy

[Zhongyongdaoist]

50 minutes ago, Shubin said:

It seems that you might want to use "内丹" or “外丹“ instead of “丹道”。

 

"Daoist alchemy" may be an acceptable translation of 丹道, but the definition of "alchemy" does not cover 内丹, at least in this dictionary, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alchemy

 

With all due respect Shubin, as a person who has studied both Chinese Alchemy and Western alchemy since the early Seventies, I can say with certainty that the dictionary definition to which you refer is so superficial as to be misleading at best:

 

Quote

The medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir.

 

The key here is the notion of "universal elixir", which in practice was considered both red (Dan) and a pill.  Used in the metallic realm it transmuted base metal into gold, taken internally by people it cured all diseases and rejuvenated the person who took it.  As such it is the Western Equivalent of "外丹", Weidan.  Going a little further into the resources of the dictionary you cite, following the link to synonyms and further to the link, View synonyms, we find:

 

Quote

‘they were involved with the quest for immortality through alchemy’

 

Which certainly corresponds with the purported goal of Chinese Alchemy.

 

Now when I say that I studied Chinese and Western alchemy, I mean that I had the resources of works on Chinese Alchemy by such authorities as Nathan Sivin and Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China, but in particular I had Charles Luk's Taoist Yoga Alchemy and Immortality, which I read and reread many times with the intent of answering the question, "Do the meditative processes outlined in this book have a sufficient connection to alchemy as conceive of and practiced in the West to merit the name alchemy?", and the conclusion to which I came over several years of reading, rereading and reading again and intense analysis of the Texts lead me to believe with high certainty that the procedures outlined in the Taoist Yoga text did indeed bear a remarkable resemblance on conceptual levels, and in many ways they had enough resemblance to the stages described in the Western texts, that they could be described as an "internal" realization of the same principles that were put forward as the basis of the external work done in a laboratory.

 

For me to justify these conclusions would require a significant digression and exposition, which I do not have time for now, nor is there really space in this thread, but which I hope to put forward at some point in the future, however, based on those researches I have to say that Daoist Alchemy or Chinese Alchemy, as it was also practiced by Confucians, seems a good and not at all misleading translation for Dandao as a term that includes both Neidan and Waidan as separate but complementary aspects.

 

ZYD