Charismatic Power (de, 德)

Abstract

Charismatic power is an important concept in traditional Chinese philosophy. Today, it is hard to verify the origin and original meaning of de. From the explanation provided in Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters we can gather that its original meaning was rising or climbing to a height. By the Western Zhou, de already contained the idea of personal virtue and good character. Up until the Spring and Autumn period, de and dao were spoken of separately; the two did not become a compound noun. The concept of dao, furthermore, was a comparatively more elevated term than de; de was used from the perspective of practical realization of dao.