de

de, in Chinese philosophy, the inner moral power through which a person may positively influence others.

Although the term is often translated in English as “virtue,” de is not simply a desirable human trait or quality, such as goodness. The term is etymologically linked to and homophonous with the verb de, meaning “to get,” “to grab,” or “to take hold of.” One’s de is therefore a charismatic power that influences others as if by grabbing them and eliciting a response or a change of mind and heart.

The concept of de played an important role in the civic rites of imperial China. The emperor, considered to be the son of heaven (tianzi), cultivated his de by performing rituals designed to propitiate heaven (tian) and thereby retain the heavenly mandate (tianming) for his reign. When Confucius (551–479 bce) transformed aristocratic and imperial ideals into personal virtues, tianming came to be understood as the proper course of a person’s life, and de became the contagious virtue—the excellence or bearing—with which the gentleman (junzi) influences others toward humane (ren) conduct, thus promoting a flourishing human society.

The Daodejing, a philosophical and spiritual text composed about 300 bce and attributed in subsequent centuries to the mythical sage Laozi, maintains that de is a kind of virtuous power of influence, but on a grander, superhuman level. De is the creative power of the Dao (the natural Way), which engenders, nurtures, and perfects the world (wanwu; literally, “the ten thousand things”). The Daodejing portrays the junzi not as the Confucian gentleman but as the self-cultivating sage-king who, attuned to the Dao, embodies this grander, cosmic de and thereby enables his kingdom to flourish.