Wu wei is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action". Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period. With early literary examples, as an idea, in the Classic of Poetry, it becomes an important concept in the Confucian Analects, Chinese statecraft, and Daoism. It was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government, including the behavior of the emperor, describing a state of personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity and laissez-faire. It generally denotes a state of spirit or state of mind, and in Confucianism, accords with conventional morality.
Zhaoming Mirror frame, Western Han dynasty
"The Way of Listening is to be giddy as though soused. Be dumber and dumber. Let others deploy themselves, and accordingly I shall know them." Right and wrong whirl around him like spokes on a wheel, but the sovereign does not complot. Emptiness, stillness, non-action—these are the characteristics of the Way. By checking and comparing how it accords with reality, [one ascertains] the "performance" of an enterprise. Han Fei Detail of The Spinning Wheel, by
Image: EN HAN260BCE
The Analects, also known as the Sayings of Confucius, is an ancient Chinese philosophical text composed of sayings and ideas attributed to Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled by his followers. The consensus among scholars is that large portions of the text were composed during the Warring States period (475–221 BC), and that the work achieved its final form during the mid-Han dynasty. During the early Han, the Analects was merely considered to be a commentary on the Five Classics. However, by the dynasty's end the status of the Analects had grown to being among the central texts of Confucianism.
A page from the Analects
Fragment from the manuscript of Analects, text by Kong Anguo with commentary by Zheng Xuan. This fragmentary manuscript has been found at Mogao Caves. It is dated era Longji, 2nd year (i.e. 890 AD), but it could be copied in the middle of the 8th century. Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Analects, from Östasiatiska Museet in Stockholm
A copy of He Yan's commentary on the Analects, with a sub-commentary by Xing Bing, printed during the Ming dynasty