 “Xuan” literally denotes a shade of black with dark red. By extension, it gains a richer meaning connoting what is hidden from view or far from reach, especially in the sense of a profound truth that escapes ordinary comprehension, and thus appears “dark” or mysterious. In this latter sense, it figures prominently in the Laozi (Daodejing). The Dao or “Way” is “formless” and “nameless,” as the Laozi asserts, and yet it is the “beginning” of “heaven and earth,” and the basis of human flourishing. Indescribably deep and profound, the Dao therefore can only be depicted as dark and hidden, or xuan (see especially Laozi, Chapter 1).