道德

English translation: 道德

15:56 Feb 26, 2019

Chinese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / Art and ethics

Chinese term or phrase: 道德

Good afternoon, I have to translate this piece of writing taken from a Chinese art magazine, how would you translate this sentence into English?

"善，另外的说法就是“德”，儒家常在前面加上“道”，成了“道德”。“道”是天道、天理，人顺天理而行事就是“德”或者“道德”。"

My proposal is:
"Goodness, also defined as “morality”, used to be combined by the Confucian school with “doctrine”, creating the “doctrine of morality”. The “doctrine” comprehends the natural laws, justice, people follow the justice and act respecting the “morality” or the “doctrine of morality”."

Do you have some suggestions on how to translate 道, 德 and 道德 avoiding repetitions?

Giulia Bonanni KudoZ activity Questions: 1 (none open) Answers: 0 United Kingdom
Local time: 07:19

English translation:道德

Explanation:
I would suggest Principles for 道， Welldoing for 德, and Morality for 道德。

善，Goodness， alternatively put，德，Welldoing， which used to be combined by Confucianists with 道， Principles， to form the concept of 道德 --literally Principles and Welldoing. 道 was defined as heavenly and ethical principles， and 德，or 道德， the human acts consistent with those principles--Morality.

Selected response from:

Chuan Xiao
Canada
Local time: 23:19

Grading comment

3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

Tao/Dao & De

Frank Zou

virtue

pkchan

ethics

Jason Pym

morality

Vladyslav Golovaty

道德

Chuan Xiao

Answers

3 hrs confidence:

morality

Explanation:
moral, ethics, morality
like - 公共道德

Vladyslav Golovaty
Ukraine
Local time: 09:19
Native speaker of:

English,

Russian

7 hrs confidence:

virtue

Explanation:
way=道
virtue=德

pkchan
United States
Local time: 02:19
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in category: 29

8 hrs confidence:

ethics

Explanation:
“in accordance with the highest ethical standards" =
按照最高道德标准

Jason Pym
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:19
Works in field
Native speaker of: English

13 hrs confidence:

Tao/Dao & De

Explanation:
These are two VERY IMPORTANT philosophical concepts you can't just put into any English words. As a matter of fact, wikipedia presents some explanations, which may not be perfect but at least give us a general idea.

Example sentence(s):

The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_(Chinese)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao

Frank Zou
China
Local time: 14:19
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in category: 4

1 day 2 hrs confidence:

道德

Chuan Xiao
Canada
Local time: 23:19
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in category: 7

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