Ziran

Ziran (Chinese: 自然; pinyin: zìrán; Wade–Giles : tzu-jen; Korean: 자연; Japanese: 自然 (じねん・しぜん, jinen shizen)) is a key concept in Daoism that literally means "self so; so of its own; so of itself" and thus "naturally; natural; spontaneously; freely; in the course of events; of course; doubtlessly" (Slingerland 2003, p. 97; Lai, p. 96). This Chinese word is a two-character compound of zi (自) "nose; self; oneself; from; since" and ran (然) "right; correct; so; yes", which is used as a -ran suffix marking adjectives or adverbs (roughly corresponding to English -ly). It is worth mentioning that in Chinese culture, the nose (or zi) is a common metaphor for a person's point of view (Callahan, 1989).