Page 393 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

354 THB BNCYCLO P BDI A OF TAO ISM A- L

explains that he achieved this by following his nature like water flows in a
stream. The notion of de was also sometimes contrasted with the practices
of "popular religion." Wang Chong 3:.JE (27-ca. 100 CE), in his Lunheng ~
~ (Balanced Discussions), held that accumulating de was a superior pursuit
compared with sacrifice and exorcism (see Forke I907-II, I: 532-37).
The pairing of de with the concept of dao first seen in Warring States texts
becomes the primary context in which the former term appears in later Taoist
texts. The relationship between the two, however, changes over time. Chen
Guying finds three similar relationships between the two terms in the Daode
jing: de as a projection of the formless Dao, as the individual characteristics
of objects that formed from Dao, and as the manifestation of the Dao in
the material world (1987, 152). In some chapters of the Taipingjing, dao and
de form a triad with ren 1= (benevolence) as ideal expres ions of Heaven,
Earth, and Humanity, respectively (e.g., Wang Ming 1960, 157). Because de
connotes a unity with Heaven, to the extent that Heaven was providential in
early medieval Taoism, being a dejun ij;g- (virtuous lord) meant receiving
blessings from Heaven. In other chapters of the Taipingjing, dao and de are
paired with Yang and Yin in discussions about the way that Heaven sustains
life among the myriad creatures through birth and nourishment, respectively
(e.g., Wang Mi?g 1960,218- 19). This connection with life becomes central for
*Sima Chengzhen (647-735), who sees life as being the de of Heaven (Qing
Xitai 1994, 2: 253). Zhuangzi's sense of de as an innate characteristic therefore
reappears in the late imperial conception of de as a primal endowment less
directly tied to morality, but one that it is similarly conferred by Heaven.
Mark CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

m Ames 1989; Chen E. M. I973b; Emerson 1992; Ivanhoe 1999; Munro 1969,
99- IIO and passim; Nivison I987b; Qing Xitai 1994, 2: 251- 55

* Dao

Deng You gong

fl. late eleventh-early twelfth century

Deng Yougong was the editor of one of the two earliest comprehensive com-
pilations of the methods of the *Tianxin zhengfa tradition, Shangqing tianxin
zhengfa L ~~ 7C {,\ lE 1* (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart of the Highest
Clarity; CT 566), and of the so-called "devil's code" (i.e., the religious code)