Chapter 7 China 257founder of a new dynasty, or the sage-ancestors of society. In focusing on de in
the second half of the Daodejing, attention turns to rulers and the state. “All
things arise from dao. They are nourished by virtue (de).”
The role of rulers to use their de is depicted in verse 39:
These things from ancient times arise from one:
The sky is whole and clear.
The earth is whole and firm.
The spirit is whole and full.
The ten thousand things are whole and alive.
Kings and lords are whole, and the country is upright.
All these are in virtue of [the de of] wholeness.
The clarity of the sky prevents its falling.
The firmness of the earth prevents its splitting.
The strength of the spirit prevents its being used up.
The fullness of the valley prevents its running dry.
The growth of the ten thousand things prevents their dying out.
The leadership of kings and lords prevents the downfall of the country.
Therefore the humble is the root of the noble.
The low is the foundation of the high.
Laozi does not question the right of rulers to exist but reminds them of the
natural limits of their powers within a universe ordered by the dao. He trusts
the dao in all things to make society function well: “If you want to be a great
leader, you must learn to follow the dao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed
plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.” Or more simply and
memorably, there is the image of the fish: “Governing a large country is like
frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.”
For Confucius, the central concept was not dao, but ren: man or humanity. “It
is man that can make the dao great.” Ren is even less translatable than dao and de.
It carries the sense of human moral perfectibility, of human potential, of the potent
goodness of human beings who have been loved, nourished, and appropriately
socialized. Confucius believed that humans are born with the potential for great
goodness, and it is within a well-ordered society that human goodness flourishes.
The Analects of Confucius where his words are held to be preserved most
authentically has nothing of the eloquence of the Daodejing. If one goes to the
Analects—as to the Bible or Quran—expecting to hear the voice of divine
authority, one will be disappointed. They are mostly pithy statements from a
man who made no claims of divinity. Interpretation of his words was what
later Confucian scholarship was all about. His ideas are most often embodied
in little stories, such as the following:
17:6 Zizhang asked Confucius about humaneness (ren). Confucius said,
“A person who can exercise these five things in his dealings with the world
is acting humanely (ren).”