Ancient Chinese thought contains a similar way of thinking. The Taoism of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu turned on the ideas of tao and te: the way or nature of things and the ability to live according to it. Though te has often been translated as ‘virtue’, it did not refer to any exclusively ‘moral’ capacity but the inner power that is needed in order to act according to the way of things. Following it meant acting as you must, and this was not only true for humans. All living creatures flourished only insofar as they obeyed their own natures.
