In Chapter 20 of the Dao De Jing, Laozi delineates the distinction between Dao cultivators and ordinary individuals. Those who follow the Dao are not preoccupied with material possessions or transient pleasures but instead devote themselves to spiritual cultivation and the comprehension of the Dao.
Chapter 21 introduces the concept of Virtue (De), whose essential characteristics are defined by the Dao itself.
The grandest forms of active force
From Dao come, their only source.
Who can of Dao the nature tell?
Our sight it flies, our touch as well.
Eluding sight, eluding touch,
The forms of things all in it crouch;
Eluding touch, eluding sight,
There are their semblances, all right.
Profound it is, dark and obscure;
Things’ essences all there endure.
Those essences the truth enfold
Of what, when seen, shall then be told.
Now it is so; ’twas so of old.
Its name – what passes not away;
So, in their beautiful array,
Things form and never know decay.
How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this (nature of the Dao).
Though the Dao is formless and imperceptible, it manifests through interactions with matter and cosmic phenomena. The Dao not only generates all things but also inherently resides within them, revealing its fundamental nature in every concrete existence.
The Dao expresses its attributes through phenomena and material entities, thereby embodying itself as Virtue (De).
孔德之容，唯道是從。道之為物，唯恍唯惚。忽兮恍兮，其中有象；恍兮忽兮，其中有物。窈兮冥兮，其中有精；其精甚真，其中有信。自古及今，其名不去，以閱衆甫。吾何以知衆甫之狀哉？以此。
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