The Ontological Structure of Dao and De: A FAAS Axiomatic Retranslation of the Dao De Jing

This paper provides a rigorous ontological retranslation of core chapters of the Dao De Jing using the Finite Agent Axiomatic System (FAAS). FAAS, grounded in three irrefutable axioms—generalized benefit-seeking and harm-avoidance, endogenous scarcity, and information incompleteness and asymmetry—together with the derived Necessity Theorem of Qualia, establishes a strict boundary between finite agents and the infinite: the infinite is omniscient, omnipotent, without scarcity or cost, hence without qualia or consciousness; finite agents, by contrast, must survive alone amid real costs, hence necessarily possess qualia. This paper demonstrates that the ontological structure described in the Dao De Jing—Dao as infinite being without preference, consciousness, or cost; De as the survival wisdom internalized under scarcity; wu-wei as the optimal governance strategy under information incompleteness—is fully isomorphic with FAAS's axiomatic derivations. The relationship between FAAS and the Dao De Jing is not one of hierarchy between explainer and explained, but an equal encounter between analytical reason and first-person contemplative access before the same ontological structure.