De (/də/; Chinese: 德; pinyin: dé), also written as Te, is a key concept in Chinese philosophy, usually translated "inherent character; inner power; integrity" in Taoism, "moral character; virtue; morality" in Confucianism and other contexts, and "quality; virtue" (guṇa) or "merit; virtuous deeds" (puṇya) in Chinese Buddhism.
De "power; virtue" is written with the Chinese character 德 in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. This character 德 combines the chi 彳 "footstep; go" radical (recurring graphic elements that suggest meaning) with zhi 直 "straight; vertical" and xin 心 "heart; mind". De 德 has rare variant characters of 徳 (without the horizontal 一 line) and 悳 or 惪 (without the 彳 "footstep" radical).
Mair concludes that Daoist de is best translated "integrity", which "means no more than the wholeness or completeness of a given entity," and like de, "it represents the selfhood of every being in the universe."
Related to Jing
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