ABSTRACT
De has a variety of meanings and uses in Chinese philosophy and in ancient Chinese ordinary language. In modern Chinese it is the second syllable of the word daode “(moral) virtue”; and de appears to have a similar meaning in ancient moral philosophy sufficiently often to have led translators usually to render it as “virtue.” But this translation is often obviously inaccurate, and much debate has ensued. It is a very old word, identifiable as early as the Shang oracle inscriptions of about 1200 B.C.E.; and in different senses it is a key term in ancient moral philosophy (perhaps “virtue”), political thought (the prestige of an important person or the staying power of a dynasty), and even metaphysics (the specific efficacious character, good or bad, of a person, class, or type of thing). In much ancient ordinary language the graph seems to represent a word meaning “a favor,” “generosity,” or “to be generous” toward someone, or “to regard (some benefactor) as generous.”
