and differs in that from its great counterpart, tao, the Way, which, in one or two expressions, such as jên tao , "the way of men and women," is suggestive of sexual activity. Other recommended translation, such as "energy" and "essential quality," seem also inadequate from the etymological point of view. Victor Mair explains that the difficulty of accurately translating de, ...is evident from the astonishing sweep of thoughtful renderings of its meaning: power, action, life, inner potency, indarrectitude (inner uprightness), charisma, mana (impersonal supernatural force inherent in gods and sacred objects), sinderesis (conscience as the directive force of one's actions), and virtue, to name only a few of the brave attempts to convey the meaning of te in English. Of these, the last is by far the most frequently encountered. Unfortunately, it is also probably the least appropriate of all to serve as an accurate translation of te in the Tao Te Ching. concludes that Daoist de is best translated "integrity", which "means no more than the wholeness or completeness of a given entity," and like de, "it represents the selfhood of every being in the universe." Characters De "power; virtue" is written with the Chinese character in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. This character combines the chi "footstep; go" radical (recurring graphic elements that suggest meaning) with zhi "straight; vertical" and xin "heart; mind". De has rare variant characters of (without the horizontal 一 line) and or (without the "footstep" radical). The earliest written forms of de are oracle script from the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600–1046 BCE) and bronzeware script and seal script from the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 BCE). Oracle characters wrote de with "footstep; go" and "straight", later bronze characters added the "heart; mind" element. The oracle script for zhi "straight; vertical" ideographically depicted shu "vertical line (in a character)" above mu "eye", the bronze script elaborated the line into shi "ten"', and the seal script separated the eye and heart with a horizontal line. Etymologies undertook a "graphophonetic analysis" of de. Based on the phonetic element zhi "upright; erect" and the radical suggesting movement, he translates de as English arrect "set upright; direct upward" (from Latin ad- "to") or insititious "ingrafted; inserted" potency (from Latin insitio "to implant; to graft"). Interpreting the "heart; mind" to connote "innerness", he takes the prefix from Latin indoles "innate quality; natural disposition" to further neologize indarrect. Boodberg concludes that