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This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei–literally “no doing,” but better rendered as “effortless action”–in early Chinese thought.
Wu-wei is usually translated as non-doing or not trying. It is a concept for-eign to Western thinking as we live in a culture of doing and achieving. At its core, wu-wei is a way of being in the world. Edward Slingerland (2014) has written about wu-wei in his book Trying Not to Try: The Art and Sci-ence of Spontaneity.
Slingerland argues that the spiritual ideal of wu-wei, examined through the lens of metaphor theory, importantly serves as a way to explore further a problem that has manifested itself both in Chinese and Western philosophy.
Mar 27, 2003 · Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers.
- Edward Slingerland
The contemporary Neo-Daoists’ concerns with creating conditions for wuwei to happen can be addressed by principles of self-organization, while wuwei provides a philosophical underpinning that is...
Confucius’s form of wu-wei--an effortless, unselfconscious but eminently cultured spontaneity--was inherited as an ideal by his two Warring States followers, Mencius and Xunzi, although they disagreed profoundly about what’s required to reach this state.
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Apr 19, 2022 · Wu Wei is a teaching that runs throughout Lao Zi’s classic work, the Tao Te Ching. In this article, I will explain what Wu Wei is and detail the different meanings this expression carries.
