Page 392 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

DE 353

de

virtue; power

The concept of de is central to the early Chinese religious conception of
the relationship between human beings and Heaven (or nature, tian 7'2). In
early texts, such as the Daode jing (lit., "Scripture of the Dao and Virtue"), the
term refers to a characteristic of the sage that both results in good actions
and confers authority. In the * Taipingjing (Scripture of Great Peace) the term
continues to refer to an innate quality correlated with good actions, but also
begins to be used to signify Heavens's conferral of life (sheng 1:) as it is does
in later imperial texts.
Arthur Waley's translation of the term as "power" in the context of the
title of the Daode jing reflects the fact that the ruler's possession of de confers
authority. This connection between de and political authority may be seen as
far back as the Shang dynasty oracle bones, where the ruler's" shining" de (xinde
~ 1i) correlated with an ability to secure the Heavenly Mandate (tianming 7'2
-$). David Nivison explains that this property of a good Shang king is demon-
strated by generosity and humility, and generates a debt of gratitude in others
(1994b, 29-30). The power that de confers may be seen in the second chapter
of the Lunyu ~~ (Analects) of Confucius: "Carrying out governance by de is
like the pole star staying fixed in place while all the other stars revolve around
it." The pole star analogy links the exercise of de to a stillness reminiscent of
its link to *wuwei (non-action) in early texts such as the Daode jingo
In those Warring States period texts later classified as belonging to the
*DAO]IA (Lineage of the Dao), de connotes a similar complex of morality
and power, but it is most closely aligned with a return to intuitive actions and
natural behavior. In the Daode jing, de is not the sole possession of the ruler,
but rather, according to Philip J. Ivanhoe (1999, 249), achieved by "paring away
the influences of socialization and intellectualization and 'turning back' to
a simple, agrarian way of life." In the *Zhuangzi, de expresses a similar kind
of "original power" that coincides with the text's assumption of an intui-
tive human morality. In the case of figures like the madmanJie Yu ~. and
Hundun r!fI14: from Zhuangzi 7, virtue is a characteristic of the denizens of the
world prior to its corruption by distinctions and the values based on them. De
is complete when a person or an age has returned to its original nature, and
in this sense it shows congruence with tian (Heaven). In Zhuangzi 21, when
Confucius remarks that Laozi's de is the equal of Heaven and Earth, Laozi