While the primacy of dao 道 as both an ethical and metaphysical concept in the Laozi is clear, the Laozi’s cosmology involves several other key terms: de 德 (potency, virtuosity, efficacy), yi 一 (the one, unity), tian 天 (heaven, the heavens, sky), and di 地 (earth). This chapter focuses on the role of tian, which I follow convention in translating as heaven. More specifically, I examine what initially appear to be two distinct discourses involving tian. One of them pairs heaven with earth and explicitly subordinates both to dao. This view appears in the Guodian Laozi materials and is often taken as the default view of the Laozi as a whole. The other discourse speaks of heaven or the way of heaven as a dominant force, often in ethical terms, without pairing it with earth or subordinating it to dao. The latter appears primarily in the last 15 chapters of the Laozi. I begin by examining these discourses separately, without insisting that all of the passages express a single authorial intention. In the last part of the chapter, I draw on various commentaries to suggest how the passages might cohere together. The chapter begins by considering the likely background for the Laozi’s views of heaven.