Ziran (Chinese: 自然; Wade–Giles: tzu-jan) is a key concept in Daoism that literally means "of its own; by itself" and thus "naturally; natural; spontaneously; freely; in the course of events; of course; doubtlessly". This Chinese word is a two-character compound of zì (自; 'nose', 'self', 'oneself', 'from', 'since') and rán (然; 'right', 'correct', 'so', 'yes'), which is used as a -ran suffix marking adjectives or adverbs (roughly corresponding to English -ly). In Chinese culture, the nose (or zi) is a common metaphor for a person's point of view.