學界常以「語言的懷疑主義」、「反名言」，來定位《老子》的語言思想，但本文以《老子》「善言」切入，來論述其語言觀之精要。本文先對《老子》第一章首句進行解析，藉以推敲《老子》對「道」與「語言」的觀點，從中可知有限度的語言無法傳達無限定的道，而有「不言」與「善言」兩種因應方式。其中《老子》「善言」所示的言說方式，可就兩兩對演、對顯的方式來概括之；而此兩兩對演具體之例，即為「正言若反」。可說《老子》即是藉「正言若反」等正反對顯的言說策略，動態式地來傳達其所謂的道。而此兩兩對演的動態言說方式，可說是《老子》語言觀的重要特色。

By contrast to “Linguistic Skepticism” or “Anti-Language” interpretations of Laozi’s philosophy of language, this essay shows “skillful speaking” is also central to Laozi’s views on language. In order to examine Laozi’s ideas of Dao and language,the opening sentences of Chapter One is analyzed. From these sentences we know that limited language could not express unlimited Dao, and therefore Laozi develops two ways, non-speaking and skillful speaking, to confront this. According to skillful speaking, this skillfulness is usually expressed by a form of dualistic
dialectic, and the concrete representative of this dialectic isLaozi’s “recto word seems verso.” We could say that the main characteristic of Laozi’s viewpoint of language is his dynamically expressing Dao via the linguistic strategy of dualistic dialectic such as “recto word seems verso.”