Man follows Earth.
Earth follows Heaven.
Heaven follows Tao.
Tao follows Nature.人 法 地，
地 法 天，
天 法 道，
道 法 自 然。
One sentence from the Dao De Jing maps reality onto five planes — Man, Earth, Heaven, Tao, Nature — and stacks them in a single transmission chain. Each plane is governed by a different theory, manifests in a different concrete, and has been worked over by different thinkers across twenty-five centuries. This site is a map.《道德经》一句话，把现实分入五个位面——人、地、天、道、自然——并将它们排成一条传承之链。 每个位面由不同的理论统摄，落在不同的具体之上，由不同的思想者经二十五个世纪反复打磨。 此站是一张地图。
The five planes五位面
Each plane corresponds to one theory of how reality is organized, one concrete in which that theory shows up, and one goal toward which it points. The four arrows between them are the transmission chain.每个位面对应一种关于现实如何组织的理论、一类具体形态，以及一种指向。 位面之间的四支箭头，便是那条传承之链。
Reality refracted through relationship. The plane where virtue, role, and meaning are negotiated.由关系折射的现实。德、位、义在此协商。
The plane where scarce stuff moves, prices encode dispersed knowledge, and selection runs in firms, in cells, and in cultures.稀缺之物流转的位面。价格编码分散知识。选择在公司、细胞与文化中同时运行。
Reality understood as math: algorithm, compute, and data — the trinity that, in any sufficient quantity, instantiates intelligence.把现实理解为数学：算法、算力、数据——当量足够时，可实例化智能的三件套。
The recursive procedure under everything else. Copy, vary, select — the same short rule produces galaxies, cells, languages, and minds.其他一切之下的递归程序。复制、变异、选择——同一条短规则生成星系、细胞、语言与心智。
What the other four planes are derivatives of. The ultimate law, the ultimate algorithm, the substrate on which the world stands.其他四个位面的本源。终极规律，终极算法，世界所立的基底。
The four transitions四次传承
The famous sentence is not five claims. It is four arrows. Each one says: the layer above is downstream of the layer below.这句名言不是五条断言，而是四支箭头。每一支都在说：上一层，是下一层的下游。
Man follows Earth人法地
Human virtue is downstream of the material conditions under which exchange happens.人的德行，是交换发生的物质条件的下游。
Earth follows Heaven地法天
Markets are downstream of the mathematics that prices, contracts, and signals obey.市场是价格、合约与信号所遵循的数学的下游。
Heaven follows Tao天法道
Mathematics itself is downstream of the recursive rule — the short procedure that anything generative must obey.数学本身，是递归规则的下游——任何具有生成性之物都必须服从的那条短程序。
Tao follows Nature道法自然
Even the recursive rule is downstream of nothing further. Nature is the place where the chain terminates — or, depending on your taste, where it loops back to the beginning.递归规则之下，再无别物。自然是这条链终止之处——或者，按你的口味，是它绕回起点之处。
The Five Elements as a force overlay作为力量层的五行
The five planes describe what reality is layered into. The five elements describe which forces are moving through those layers today.五位面描述现实被分成什么。五行描述今天有哪些力量正在穿过这些层级。
Explore the wheel →查看五行轮 →- 金Metal · Communist Party · Industrialism · Finance金 · 共产党 · 工业党 · 金融业
- 木Wood · AI · What must grow naturally木 · AI · 需要自然生长的东西
- 水Water · Dao De Jing · The Flowing水 · 道德经 · 流动的
- 火Fire · Mars · Rockets · Promethean technology火 · 火星 · 火箭 · 普罗米修斯式技术
- 土Earth · Freemasons · Stonemasons · Land土 · 共济会 · 石匠组织 · 土地
Twenty-five centuries, ten thinkers, one map二十五个世纪，十位思想者，一张图
From Pythagoras and Laozi to Witten and Turing — the same five planes, restated by different civilizations in different vocabularies.从毕达哥拉斯与老子，到威滕与图灵——同样的五个位面，由不同文明以不同词汇反复说出。
Why this matters now此时为何重要
Three things are happening at once. Confucian relationality is being stress-tested at species scale by social platforms. Market discovery procedures are being absorbed by AI agents that can simulate a million counterfactual trades per second. Mathematical physics, neuroscience, and machine learning are converging on a single description of what intelligence is.
None of the three is intelligible without the other two. You cannot govern AI without an ethics of relationship. You cannot allocate compute without a market. You cannot design either without a working theory of what reality is made of. The five planes give you the table on which all three sit.
Laozi's sentence is short by design. It compresses to about thirty syllables a model of reality that the West has only assembled, in pieces, over the same two and a half millennia. The arrow of compression always points back to him.
三件事正在同时发生。儒家关系性正以物种为尺度被社会平台压力测试。 市场的发现程序正在被每秒可模拟百万次反事实交易的 AI 智能体吸收。 数理物理、神经科学与机器学习，正在收敛到关于"智能是什么"的同一条描述。
三者中任何一项，若离开另外两项都不可理解。 离开关系伦理，无法治理 AI；离开市场，无法分配算力；离开关于现实由何构成的工作理论， 两者都无法被设计。五位面给出的，正是上述三者共同坐落的那张桌子。
老子那句话刻意做得很短。它把一份模型——西方在同样两千五百年间靠零散拼接才组装出来的模型—— 压缩到约三十个音节。压缩之箭，始终指回他。