Such an interpretative approach wou

Such an interpretative approach would recognize that, in claiming that the wor1d places the highest va1ue on the dao of books, the dao becomes an ordinary term in the passage. This usage - as if this particular dao were one among many - thus makes it less likely that the elusive, untransmitted thing that yi follows is "dao," understood as the ultimate, only real way. Whether this passage addresses that sort of overarching dao is not, finally, resolvable, but the latter reading has more textual evidence in its favor.