Wu wei

Daoist texts rarely suggest that wu wei could help ordinary people gain political power, portraying it as a source of serenity.

This "conception of the ruler's role as a supreme arbiter, who keeps the essential power firmly in his grasp" while leaving details to ministers, has a "deep influence on the theory and practice of Chinese monarchy", playing a "crucial role in the promotion of the autocratic tradition of the Chinese polity", ensuring the ruler's power and the stability of the polity.

In the more "purposive" Daoism of the Daodejing, likely written after the early Zhuangzi, wu wei becomes a major "guiding principle for social and political pursuit", in which the Daoist "seeks to use his power to control and govern the world".

[17] But it would still be difficult to date the Tao te Ching back to the time of Confucius, even if it predated the third century bce.

With older sinologists more focused on terms, Creel believed that an important clue to the idea of wu wei existed in the Analects.

Taken as a historical fact demonstrating the viable superiority of Confucianism (or Daoism, for Daoist depictions), wu wei may be understood as a strongly "realist" spiritual-religious ideal, differing from Kantian or Cartesian realism in its Chinese emphasis on practice.

The primary example of Confucianism – Confucius at age 7 – displays "mastery of morality" spontaneously, his inclinations being in harmony with his virtue.

In practice, wu wei is aimed at through behaviour modification; cryptically referenced meditation and more purely physical breathing techniques as in the Guanzi, which includes just taking the right posture.

[24] Though, by still needing to make a cognitive effort, perhaps not resolving the paradox of not doing, the concentration on accomplishing wu wei through the physiological would influence later thinkers.

[26] When you enlarge your mind and let go of it, When you relax your qi; vital breath and expand it, When your body is calm and unmoving: And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances.

There Bodhidharma says, "Principle is the obverse of the conventional; quiet mind and practice no-action; forms follow the turnings of fate; the ten thousand existences are thus void; wish for nothing.

Henrik Sorensen observes that wuwei and other terms commonly associated with Daoism appear in the two Oxhead School texts, the Jueguan lun (Treatise on Cutting Off Contemplation) and the Xin Ming (Mind Inscription).

[31] For example, the Xin Ming says:Enjoying the Dao is calmingWandering at ease in the truly realNothing to do (無為, wuwei), nothing to attainRelying on nothing, appearing naturally[32]Wuwei also appears throughout another text associated with the Oxhead School known as the Baozang lun (Treasure Store Treatise), where it occurs alongside the East Asian philosophical concept of ganying, or "sympathetic resonance."

"[33] According to Sharf, this combines the early Chinese ideal of the sage-king with Indian Buddhist notions of Bodhi as free of karmic activity.

"[38] According to Jinhua Jia, although the above have been attributed to Baozhi of the Liang and Yongjia Xuanjue respectively, these are likely products of the Hongzhou school of Chan, which flourished during the Tang dynasty.

[39] In other Chan sources one can also find the similar term, wú shì (無事), often translated as "nothing-to-do," but which also has the meaning of no affairs, no concerns, no matters, and no business.

[43] Apart from the Confucian ruler's "divine essence" (ling) "ensuring the fecundity of his people" and fertility of the soil, Creel notes that he was also assisted by "five servants", who "performed the active functions of government".

"[59] Emphasizing the use of administrative methods (Fa) in secrecy, Shen Buhai portrays the ruler as putting up a front to hide his weaknesses and dependence on his advisers.

[60] Shen therefore advises the ruler to keep his own counsel, hide his motivations, and conceal his tracks in inaction, availing himself of an appearance of stupidity and insufficiency.

Creel argues that not getting involved in details allowed Shen's ruler to "truly rule", because it leaves him free to supervise the government without interfering, maintaining his perspective.

[67] Shen Buhai insisted that the ruler must be fully informed of the state of his realm, but couldn't afford to get caught up in details and in an ideal situation need listen to no one.

[72] Rather than having to look for "good" men, ming-shih or xing-ming can seek the right man for a particular post by comparing his reputation with real conduct (xing "form" or shih "reality"), though doing so implies a total organizational knowledge of the regime.

"[77] The correlation between wu wei and ming-shih likely informed the Taoist conception of the formless Tao that "gives rise to the ten thousand things.

[85] When an enlightened ruler establishes [gong] ("duke" or "public interest"), [private] desires do not oppose the correct timing [of things], favoritism does not violate the law, nobility does not trump the rules, salary does not exceed [that which is due] one's position, a [single] officer does not occupy multiple offices, and a [single] craftsman does not take up multiple lines of work... [Such a ruler] neither overworked his heart-mind with knowledge nor exhausted himself with self-interest (si), but, rather, depended on laws and methods for settling matters of order and disorder, rewards and punishments for deciding on matters of right and wrong, and weights and balances for resolving issues of heavy or light...[85] The reason why those who apportion horses use ce-lots, and those who apportion fields use gou-lots, is not that they take ce and gou-lots to be superior to human wisdom, but that one may eliminate private interest and stop resentment by these means.

[57] Jia Yi's (200–168 AD) Hsin-shu, undoubtedly influenced by the "Legalists", describes Shen Buhai's techniques as methods of applying the Dao, or virtue, bringing together Confucian and Daoist discourses under the imagery of the Zhuangzi.

– 9 A.D.), although oriented toward state interest, would go on to include naturalist arguments in favour of rule by worthies on the basis that one needs their competence for such things as diplomacy, and defines wu wei as follows: "What is meant ... by wu-wei is that no personal prejudice [private or public will,] interferes with the universal Tao [the laws of things], and that no desires and obsessions lead the true course ... astray.

Reason must guide action in order that power may be exercised according to the intrinsic properties and natural trends of things.

As soon as forms and names are established, the distinction between black and white becomes manifest... there will be no way to escape from them without a trace or to hide them from regulation... [all things] will correct themselves.

"[101] Watts also understood wu wei as “the art of getting out of one’s own way” and offered the following illustration: “The river is not pushed from behind, nor is it pulled from ahead.

It falls with gravity.”[102] Leo Tolstoy was deeply influenced by Daoist philosophy, and wrote his own interpretation of wu wei in his piece Non-Activity.