Traditional commentaries beginning with the Hanfeizi often play on the homonymic relation between de (virtue) and another graph also pronounced de, which means to "acquire" or "obtain" something.
The following presents some of the main concepts and symbols in the Laozi based on the current text, focusing on the key conceptual cluster of Dao, de (virtue), ziran (naturalness), and wuwei (nonaction).
From this perspective, both Laozi and Confucius are interpreters of de-virtue.
De, ( Chinese: "virtue," "excellence," "moral power") Wade-Giles romanization te, in Chinese philosophy, the inner moral power through which a person may positively influence others.
Thereupon, Laozi wrote a book in two sections of 5,000 characters, in which he set down his ideas about the Dao (literally "Way") and the de (its "virtue"): the Daodejing.
This is the meaning of de, the "virtue" or power with which the "ten thousand things"—i.e., all beings—have been endowed and without which life would cease.
Because wu does not refer to any substance or cosmological power, what the Laozi means by de, the "virtue" that one has "obtained" from Dao, can only be understood as what is originally, naturally present in human beings.
Nevertheless, there are advantages to translating de as "virtue," as it keeps in the foreground that the Laozi is giving new meaning to an established concept, as opposed to introducing a new concept not found in other schools of Chinese philosophy.
Particularly representative of Plutarch's ethical views are the treatises On Moral Virtue (De virtute morali), On Making Progress in Virtue (De profectibus in virtute), On Delays in Divine Punishment (De sera numinis vindicta), On Control of Anger (De cohibenda ira), and On Tranquility of Mind (De tranquillitate animi).
That the Way (Dao) and its Virtue (de) were destroyed in order to create benevolence and righteousness this was the fault of the sage.
He felt that virtue (de), both as a personal quality and as a requirement for leadership, was essential for individual dignity, communal solidarity, and political order.
