The Dao of Rhetoric (SUNY series in Communication Studies)

Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. Would you also like to submit a review for this item? You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. The Dao of rhetoric Author: Steven C Combs Publisher: SUNY series in communication studies. English View all editions and formats Summary: In the first book to systematically deal with Daoism Taoism from a rhetorical perspective, author Steven C.

Combs advances the idea that the works of Daoist Taoist sages Laozi Loa Tzu , Zhuangzi Chuang Tzu , and Sunzi Sun Tzu can be fused into a coherent rhetorical genre, which can then form a methodology for rhetorical criticism. This notion of Daoist rhetoric enables critics to examine discourse from new vantage points with novel processes and concepts that honor the creativity and complexity of human communication.

Combs also critically examines four contemporary filmsThe Tao of Steve, A Bug's Life, Antz, and Shrekto amplify rhetorical Daoism, to indicate clear differences between Western and Daoist values, and to offer fresh perspectives on individuals and social action. The book argues that Daoism provides a lens for viewing limitations of current Western rhetorical theorizing, positioning Daoist rhetoric as a potent critical perspective in the contemporary, postmodern world. Find a copy online Links to this item Full text of book available. Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private.

Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item It must be noted, however, that I analyze these films not as a way to investigate popular culture, but to further explore Daoism. These films have significant moral implications, and the application of Daoism promotes thinking about proper conduct for our nations, businesses, families, and selves. These artifacts are easily accessed by large and diverse audiences, speak to broad social themes and ideas that transcend particular historical moments, and illuminate Daoism as a critical response to these issues.

Chapter 6 examines The Tao of Steve because it is, ostensibly, the story of Daoism put into practice in the West. If Daoist rhetoric can function as a method for rhetorical criticism, then it must, at the least, prove useful in the consideration of texts that purport to be Daoistic. This story may thus be seen as a metaphor for the potential pitfalls that occur when westerners attempt to appropriate Eastern thought. The films reflect clear value orientations of Western and Eastern cultures respectively, providing very different answers to the question of how an individual can live a meaningful life in a mass society.

Chapter 8 considers the prospect of using Daoist rhetoric in conjunction with other analytical tools. The critique questions the purported universality of the hero myth. It argues that Shrek induces audiences to identify with a new vision of the hero, one that challenges the traditional Western hero by valorizing the individual who focuses on being content, living simply, and avoiding conflict. I explore the potential for Daoism to provide a lens for viewing limitations of current Western rhetorical theorizing.

The analysis begins by focusing on ideas of Kenneth Burke, arguably the most central figure in contemporary Western rhetoric, and responding to those views from a Daoist perspective. It then considers Daoist rhetoric as a potent critical perspective in the contemporary, postmodern world. I maintain that Daoist rhetoric opens exciting avenues for theory, criticism, and social action, is energized when it is put into practice, and can be valuable at the most mundane levels of existence. I believe that the future of rhetorical studies lies, in part, in the past. The intellectual path that is being followed in the West would benefit by considering the path not taken.

An account of the historical environment or context for the works of the sages, which are analyzed specifically in the next three chapters, adds richness to the potential meanings and applications of Daoism for rhetoric. Insights about context may help distinguish aspects of the texts that are situation-specific, bound by context in such a way as to be irrelevant in other contexts, from elements that espouse timeless wisdom.

The DAO of Rhetoric

Examining the historical environment or milieu, therefore, can assist our understanding of these ancient texts and how their views of Daoism might be applicable to rhetorical theory and criticism. I begin this chapter by elaborating on dominant features of classical Greek and Daoist worldviews in order to articulate a Daoist view of text and context.

I then consider contextual elements, factors outside of the texts, which I believe interacted most significantly in their assemblage. These factors include the translation process, rhetorical personae, and the political and philosophical environment. To the Greeks, there is a permanent real world that stands behind appearance.

Within this conception, reason plays a paramount role. The Western notion of dualism is also apparent in conceptions of the self. The idea of manifest and latent self, as well as body and soul, communicates a dualistic sense of the individual that is foreign to Daoists. In Daoism, there is one world, and it alone constitutes reality. There is no independent agent, such as a god, to provide order and life.

Instead, everything in the universe is constantly changing, developing, and interacting. The inherent nature of reality is change and novelty. Knowing, then, rests on the ability to perceive the connections and interactions, the comprehensiveness, which constitute the world: All conditions interrelate and collaborate in greater or lesser degree to constitute a particular event as a confluence of experiences. One must understand the connections between all things, integrating the perceptions of both mind and body in order to see the unity of the universe.

A person has no unique essence, but is simply a part of the many. A person may therefore be known as the man who lives next to the butcher, the father of Qi, or the son of Wu. It is the association of things that constitutes all things. Rhetorical action involves three distinct elements: The message text responds to a preexisting situation—the mind of the rhetor, the historical circumstances, and the predispositions of the audience—or context. The text is thus a product of the context, and it, in turn, affects the attitudes and beliefs of the audience. Artful rhetoric, as Aristotle suggests, is the faculty of observing the available means of persuasion in a given case.

Rhetoric becomes a quasi-scientific enterprise, as rhetors apply reason to divine the underlying aspects of the context and then fashion texts that produce desired audience responses. This approach clearly identifies component parts of the rhetorical process and specifies, in a linear way, the movement from preexisting situation to text to audience effect. As I will further explore in chapter 2, the temporary assemblage of elements into a body, message, or physical object creates the illusion of stability and uniqueness, but only because one is looking at that assemblage from a particular vantage point at a particular time.

Over time, elements in the universe generate a body that alternately degenerates and regenerates, before ultimately returning its elements to the environment. Accordingly, distinctions such as text and context are not true distinctions but rather arbitrary and time-bound labels. A text is simply a temporary assemblage of symbols whose meaning interacts cyclically with everything else in the environmental field: Meanings and identities change and are never fully formed or stable.

In fact, change and interaction produce the identity and meaning of things in the world. Text and context, like rhetor and audience, are inseparable. Distinguishing text and context, then is an arbitrary imposition on the fundamental nature of reality. It is nonetheless useful and necessary. The Daoist view that context is both an important and arbitrary category appears contradictory, but as we shall learn, in Daoism opposites do not negate or repel but complement.

Context is important because rhetorical artifacts are situated historically—there is a spatial and temporal dimension that is relevant when a text is created and has some bearing on meaning. Texts are connected to time and place because, in Daoism, nothing stands apart from the world. The artifact is a product of all aspects of the environmental field, and the more we know about the interconnected aspects of the environment, the more we can understand.

Of course, when we refer to something as a distinct entity or product of a particular set of circumstances we are speaking of how it presents itself at a particular time. We can propose an arbitrary historical context, as long as we recognize that claims regarding context, while important, are provisional: Articulating a historical context temporarily places events in the foreground amid the background of reality. For example, the distinctions between the four seasons are arbitrary.

There have been blizzards in the middle of summer and heat waves in the depths of winter. There have been epochs where weather stayed relatively stable from season to season for centuries. At the same time, farmers are wise to teach their children to follow the seasons regarding when to plant, when to fertilize and water, when to harvest, and when to leave the soil fallow.

We pull things into the foreground and speak of them as though they are discrete in order to do business. When we do this, which includes any instance when we use language, we create artificial distinctions because they are useful. Daoists use language and create categories, such as context, as a way of foregrounding. It can serve a practical purpose to create categories or distinctions and label them so that we can act in this world. As long as we recognize what we are doing, there is no harm or issue. In fact, we must do these sorts of things in order to survive. When we isolate text and context we are using them as a basis for understanding, not positing a claim about the nature of reality.

Specifying a context foregrounds the elements in the field—historical and cultural events, rhetors, audiences—that seem to be of great importance in their interaction with each other. If a Daoist were to talk about a rhetorical interactant, text, or context it would be assumed that the conversation is not treating these elements as fixed or stable entities that exist in isolation from one another or anything else.

Furthermore, context does not imply causation. Daoists reject linear explanations of events. Texts are not caused by situations but are part of them. There is an interactive flux that dynamically conditions all features in the environmental field. Situating Daoism within a time frame in which certain events took place does not mean that those events caused the sages to say what they did in a linear sense.

It is more appropriate to say that Daoist thought influenced historically situated events just as those events affected Daoist thought. To treat Daoism with an appreciation for its texts and contexts is to recognize its fluid and dynamic presence in the world. Locating a context or historical framework for the crafting of key texts does not tell us what Daoism is, but what it might have been to emerging identities at one time.

My examination of historical context indicates, from my vantage point, what I think was in play during the construction of the texts. While we cannot contain Daoist thought or objectify its teachings, situating Daoism contextually may help us understand Daoist thought not as timeless prescriptions but as living events.

We may even discern how these lessons might be meaningful in our unique circumstances. The translation problems of which I speak are not simply encountered in moving from Chinese to English but originate in translating classical Chinese, which has not been used for centuries, to modern Chinese. Sentences are determined by what appears to be meaningful units of thought.

The present chapter divisions have simply evolved by convention. For translators and readers alike, the meaning of the text is undoubtedly influenced by these divisions. Interestingly, there are no extant copies of the original version. Existing traditional renditions are rife with errors. Of the traditional texts that do exist, most scholars now agree that some of the characters are incorrect and the meanings of others are uncertain.

Still other characters—indeed, whole lines of them—are incorrectly placed. And some characters and lines are missing entirely. This has been confirmed by the recently discovered Ma-wang-tui texts, which have filled in as many as three lines in one so-called chapter. Daoism is certainly affected by the politics of translation.

One might wonder to what extent translation politics may have affected Western versions of the text. In this case, however, the study of Daoism in the West came largely after the primary colonial period. Thus, while there is always a certain politicization of texts, in the case of Daoism this has not been particularly pervasive. Nonetheless, as we read these germinal works we must remain aware that all translations are perspectival interpretations. If nothing else, identifying authorship provides a historical time frame for the text that can point to significant social forces that may have interacted with the rhetorical act or artifact.

The book Dao de jing was originally titled Laozi, in accordance with the Chinese custom of attributing philosophical texts to a named figure thought to have originated or popularized the ideas Kaltenmark, The most prevalent, and I think credible, view is that Dao de jing is a composite work.

Ames and Hall agree: The text is also referred to in Zhuangzi, indicating the order in which those works were rendered. Like the Dao de jing, the authorship of the Zhuangzi is uncertain. The text is widely considered to be a composite of several works by different authors from different periods of time Clarke, The book is divided into three sections—the Inner Chapters 1—7 , the Outer Chapters 8—22 , and the Miscellaneous Chapters 23— The core text of Art of War, consisting of thirteen chapters, was probably written by Sun Wu or his disciples Ames, ; Griffith, ; Huang, ; Sawyer, Because of questions regarding the accuracy of historical records, and the possibility that Art of War was compiled by adherents of Sun Wu after his death, there are conflicting ideas regarding when it was written.

According to Ames, the historical Sun Wu is estimated to have lived circa B. Most scholars date the compilation of Art of War somewhere between the end of the Spring-Autumn period and the late Warring States period Ames, ; Griffith, ; Huang, ; Sawyer, Regardless of its exact date of compilation, Art of War responds to major philosophical perspectives and political events that occurred during the intense military campaigns of the latter SpringAutumn period circa — B. In sum, all three texts upon which I rely were most likely compiled between the fifth and third centuries B. Consequently, I treat Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi as rhetorical personae and not necessarily actual historical figures solely responsible for particular texts.

This political context is rooted in the Zhou Chou dynasty, which was formed around B. Barbarians to the north and west presented an ongoing danger to the dynasty. The kings countered these threats by granting fiefs and monetary rewards to feudal lords who pledged loyalty to the Zhou. As the feudal lords became more powerful, the central government became increasingly ineffectual. Within a few generations, the power of the western Zhou began to erode precipitously. The Zhou capital was retrenched in the east, and the loss of political power by the Zhou royal house allowed the city-states, ruled by feudal lords, to exert increasing power.

The result was a period of continual battle for conquest and survival. In the period from — B. Eventually, a permanent imbalance of power prevailed: The conflicts of the Spring and Autumn period had segmented China into seven powerful survivor-states, each contending for control of the realm, and fifteen weaker states for them to prey upon. The feudal lords had by then evolved into despotic monarchs who were compelled to nurture the development of extensive economic and political bureaucracies just to survive. In the following centuries, from — B.

As the size of warfare increased so did its brutality: At every level of innovation, from the introduction of cavalry, to standard issue crossbows, to siege engines, these instruments of aggression made a folly of defense. Cities were walled and fortified only to be breached; borders were drawn up only to be redrawn; alliances were formed only to be betrayed; treaties were signed only to be reneged upon. Constant offensive warfare, political betrayal, and official corruption dominated life in classical China.

Tremendous energy was devoted to coping with the uncertainty and brutality of everyday life. The central authority, both politically and spiritually, was disrupted during the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods and China was divided into independent feudal territories ruled by various lords. These rulers tended to the ceremonial needs of spiritual practice, but because of the decentralization of political power, spiritual authority had also been scattered.

This invigorated the shih, or scholar class, who found themselves with valuable opportunities to influence rulers and thus increase their own prestige. The rulers, with but little understanding of the arts of government, sought the advice of learned men of various schools of thought.

In return they offered positions of prestige and dignity, and lavished wealth and honours on those whom they trusted. To these blandishments of the rulers the Taoist mystics turned a deaf ear. Hence, Daoism is seen in a richer light when juxtaposed with Confucianism as competing responses to challenging social, political, and philosophical conditions in ancient China. The imperial house and the Chinese ruling establishment have been pre-eminently Confucian, and Confucianism as the dominant philosophy of administrative classes became institutionalized in official rites and ceremonies and in the imperial sacrifices.

In this way, it became part of the apparatus of government. Classical Chinese philosophy is centered on the Dao, but Confucians and Daoists view the Dao differently. Confucius was interested in the perfection of the human in society. He taught what he believed was the correct, moral way to live, prescribing detailed guidelines for behavior. Confucius believed that the good order once existed in the two preceding dynasties and that the only hope for the future was to recapture the past splendor by restoring the values and practices of a prior golden age.

Drawing on the authority of revered ancestors, and from a long and sacred tradition of religious ceremony, Confucius created a system of moral conduct governing virtually every aspect of life. His code for proper conduct governed not only morality, but also dress, manners, demeanor, and gesture Parrinder, Enlightenment was achieved through study of the classics and respectful participation in correct ritual, custom, and tradition Schwartz, This orientation allows everyone to know what is expected of them and others as well as how to conduct oneself.

Duty and social propriety are clearly marked paths. Daoists would agree with Confucians that the Dao had been lost and that this explained the current problems in society. They disagree in the notion of why the Dao was lost and where it may be discovered. For Confucians, the problem was forgotten traditions and the solution was a strict conduct code, the observance of rituals, and resurrection of practices of sage monarchs.

The answer was not duty to ancestral traditions but to align oneself with the eternal, universal force of the Dao by living consistently with the natural world, recognizing the unity of things rather than their distinctions, and transcending the material world. The Confucian solution to chaos, from the perspective of the Daoists, entrenched the problem, by insisting on conformity with humanmade laws, and moved humans further from the Dao of Heaven. While the Confucian perspective created order, it endorsed humanism and hierarchy. The Dao itself is universal, but changing. The ways we perceive and talk about the Dao are always reflections of our perspectives.

Our discussions will always be tempered by the inadequacy of language to account for the ineffable. Yet these difficulties are no different from the ones Laozi faced, and they are not insurmountable. In fact, what makes this book unique is that its objective is not only a deeper understanding of Daoism, but also a study of the uses of rhetoric. What is of particular interest to rhetoricians, and will be centered throughout this book, are the methods the sages used to communicate given these difficulties. A study in Daoist rhetoric is a study in working with the fluctuating ineffable with imperfect tools.

It is because of these challenges that we can learn much from the rhetoric of the Daoist sages. Sometime after the age of eighty, he became tired of his work, disgusted with the abuses of the court, and saddened and disillusioned that people were unwilling to follow the path to natural goodness. He attempted to flee from the kingdom, setting out for the western border of China, toward what is now Tibet. The warden of the frontier guard stopped him at the border and insisted that he write down his teachings and ideas before he departed. Laozi then composed in five thousand characters the Dao de jing.

While the legend behind the Dao de jing is highly disputable, there is no question that the text has had a profound influence on the world. Hence, we can refer to the Dao of architecture, war, or wellness. Numerous books, typically titled, The Dao of blank , attempt to convey this sense of the Dao. Dao can also mean a power or energy source. Dao also refers to an ultimate state of being.

Their consciousness is so keenly attuned to the moment that everything fades into the background. Time seems to slow down, and they are able to move instinctively, without thinking, in just the right way. When I bodysurf I sometimes lose track of everything except the ocean. Dao can also stand for the underlying reality of all things, as well as the design that stands behind that reality. Wu translates the first line of the Dao de jing thusly: Hence the Dao that can be communicated is not the ultimate Dao. Is this because the ineffable Dao defies linguistic description, language is limited and cannot adequately represent certain ideas, or both?

While questions regarding language will be taken up later, Dao de jing continues to distinguish the nameable and nameless Dao: Of course, there is only Dao, although its forms and processes seem divided and paradoxical: Dao was considered both unchanging in its essences and changing in its expression of that essence: Its manifestations, which can be named, are constantly changing. The Dao can and cannot be named because it is eternal and universal, time-bound and particular. We cannot find words to express the nameless Dao because we cannot apprehend the universal.

Furthermore, we cannot use words for the Dao because naming something demarcates its opposite. To distinguish the Dao that can be named from the nameless Dao is also to say that we can name certain aspects of the Dao. We have some ability to describe what is with language. But the total and all-encompassing nature of the Dao cannot be expressed in words. Yet, at the same time, I recognize that all of these meanings of the Dao overlap to a certain extent, and can be appropriate.

They are only distinguishable through a specific context, because the nature of the Dao is the unity that is all. Tai chi exercise, Feng shui placement, and numerous martial arts techniques are grounded in the Dao. Because the Dao is the way, it makes available efficacious methods and approaches that tap into the design of the universe. Furthermore, we can lose ourselves and become one with the unity, allowing us to move with the rhythm of the universe. It is also important to remember that the Dao, because it is all, includes the potential of all that is not.

At the same time, black is a nonvoid containing and sustaining all things because when all colors are combined together they become black. Hence, black can be seen as a unification of all things—the result of blending everything together. Furthermore, black does everything by doing nothing because it is the completion of all things, the combination of all colors; and it is the potential for all things because it takes no particular form.

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It has the boundless potential to be anything if light is introduced. Similarly, the Dao is all that is and will be. It is the named, as mother or creator of what is, and the nameless, as the boundless potential of everything that can be. It does everything and nothing. It is the many and the one. Yin is passive energy— motionless and still, sometimes described as feminine, earthy, or dark. Yang is active and overt energy—male, fiery, or light.

According to Laozi, the Dao is the source of these two elements: Laozi goes on to explain that everything is formed and harmonized by the interaction of the two: Of course, nothing is entirely yin or yang. The process of change places one or the other in ascendancy, but at its peak, it recedes, just like the darkest moment of night is immediately followed by a touch of light. Hence, the constant blending of opposites, the mingling of all things into the one thing, constitute the rhythm and design of the universe. All creatures are constantly moving, and the sense of permanence, or at least control, which so often accompanies Western worldviews, is illusionary.

We may see ourselves, for example, as stable entities. In fact, at the molecular level, our cells are constantly degenerating and regenerating. In order to stay alive, your body must live on the wings of change. At this moment, you are exhaling atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen that just an instant before were locked up in solid matter; your stomach, liver, heart, lungs, and brain are vanishing into thin air, being replaced as quickly and endlessly as they are being broken down.

The skin replaces itself once a month, the stomach lining every five days, the liver every six weeks, and the skeleton every three months. To the naked eye these organs look the same from moment to moment, but they are always in flux. By the end of this year, 98 percent of the atoms in your body will have been exchanged for new ones. They may also provide habitats for microscopic creatures. All things come into existence from the one, by virtue of their interaction. Constant flux and transformation is the natural state, or nature, of the process that makes everything as one. Just like everything else, nature has a oneness but it also can be differentiated or particularized.

Nature may thus be universal, as in this example from Laozi: We can also consider particular qualities that are natural for certain things: The sage understands the natural way and attends to the universal and particular—the one and the many. When the world is in a state of equilibrium, it is harmonious and balanced.

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And for the world to be harmonious, individuals, and all its constituents, must be harmonious. Since identity inheres in the interactions of reality, one is completed by all others. To be a balanced person, the universe must also be balanced. Harmony, in Daoism, is a paramount goal for human activity. The Dao created a natural equilibrium where everything blended perfectly, but Laozi acknowledges that humans have the ability to follow what is natural or defy the natural way and be governed by human conventions.

For example, it is natural to make minor adjustments to adapt to different circumstances. The way of tian is like archers drawing their bows. To hit something high in the air, they pull the string downward; to hit something lower, they pull the string upward. The way of human beings, on the other hand is not like this at all.

It is instead to take away from those who do not have enough in order to give more to those who already have too much. Laozi laments the shortcomings of the rulers of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods and notes the solution to the problems of the world is for rulers to stop acting out of personal desire and be guided by the larger, universal way of things: What exactly is the natural way?

After all, one can argue that it is natural for humans to try to conquer disease and fly to the moon, since humans have done these things. By this reasoning it is also natural to commit genocide and destroy the ability of the Earth to sustain its various species, because our history includes genocide and we now have the capacity for ecological destruction. In response, I suspect Laozi would remind us of two things. First, the Earth, if not blown to bits, will retain a capacity for life regardless of human activity.

There was a time before humans, and the future will not necessarily include human life. Species die when the environmental field cannot enable and sustain them. Ultimately, humans may tragically learn that the natural way stands above human convention. It would seem wise to recognize that our ability to do something does not make it natural or desirable.

If humans wish to be a part of the world, then Laozi believes they are at risk when they set themselves apart from it. If someone wants to rule the world, and goes about trying to do so, I foresee that they simply will not succeed. The world is a sacred vessel, and is not something that can be ruled. Those who would rule it ruin it; those who would control it lose it. Human activity must coordinate with the workings of the rest of the world. Laozi argues that the natural way is temperate and moderate. He suggests that we pay attention to the small things, because they preempt large problems. Deal with a situation before it happens; Bring it under control before it gets out of hand.

While living, people are supple and soft, but once dead, they become hard and rigid cadavers. While living, the things of this world and its grasses and trees are pliant and fragile, but once dead, they become withered and dry. Thus it is said: Things that are hard and rigid are the companions of death; Things that are supple and soft are the companions of life. Nothing in this world is as soft and weak as water and yet in attacking what is hard and strong, there is nothing that can surpass it.

This is because there is nothing that can be used in its stead. There is no one in the world that does not know that the soft prevails over the hard and the weak prevails over the strong, and yet none are able to act accordingly. Nature also moves slowly and is best adapted to with minor changes made early and often.

Life is affirmed by being soft and flexible, while hardness and rigidity move toward death. Nature also stands at the intersection of theory and practice. Practically, nature is the movement of the here and now that we all experience. Its pragmatic sense is enlivened by the concept wu-wei, which is the expression of the natural way in human activity.

Wu-wei refers to effortless action—the ability to accomplish without coercion. When one is aligned with the Dao it is possible to move like a leaf on a stream of water. A tree does not try to be a tree; it simply is one. Similarly, a Daoist does not strategize and strive to achieve humanistic objectives but simply moves in accordance with the natural coherence of the world.

Once again, water exemplifies a difficult concept: Only the least substantial thing can penetrate the seamless. To be with the Dao also means that one is thinking only of the moment and what is at hand. The attention is so keenly focused on the nature of the present that there is no planning per se. One simply responds intuitively to the circumstances.

When one accomplishes without exertion it indicates that one knows the Dao and is attuned to the natural way of things. Action that is actionless wu-wei entails the ability to flow with the stream of reality.

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In the sense that wu-wei puts a human component to the natural way, and signifies or marks its presence in an individual, de brings the eternal and theoretical aspects of Daoism to the pragmatic human level. Dao is the container word for the ineffable and it organizes cosmological aspects of Daoism.

De is the presence of the potency of the Dao within an individual. De is frequently translated as virtue or power. Way-making [dao] gives things their life, and their particular efficacy [de] is what nourishes them. Events shape them, and having a function consummates them. It is for this reason that all things honor way-making and esteem efficacy. As for the honor directed at way-making and the esteemed directed at efficacy, it is really something that just happens spontaneously without having ennobled them.

In fact, the highest efficacy may be invisible or involve the use of proxies. Those who are good as students are not militant; those who are good at waging war are not belligerent; those who are good at vanquishing their enemies do not join issue; those who are good at employing others place themselves beneath them. This is what is called having noncontentious efficacy [de]. It is what is called making use of others. It is what is called an axis that is as old as the heavens. Their de is both generated by their character and the recognition conferred by those around them p.

Thus, those with de are efficacious because they manifest qualities of the Dao and produce outcomes that engender gratitude and appreciation, which further enables their accomplishments. In this sense, de is a marker for the Dao in an individual.

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