Te

Te (Chin., ‘power’, ‘virtue’). The means in Chinese thought, and especially in Taoism, through which the Tao becomes manifest and actualized. The underlying character is made up of three elements, moving ahead, the eye, and ‘heart-and-mind’. Philologically this suggests an underlying sense of a self-aware arising and disposition in a particular direction; but it may also include the sense of going in a straight direction. Te is thus the making particular of the potency of Tao, and is the inherent nature or quality which makes a thing what it is and what it ought to be. In Confucianism, Te is the quality possessed by wise and civilized people who are a model to their fellow-citizens.