Wu wei
Wu wei (simplified Chinese: 无为; traditional Chinese: 無為; pinyin: wúwéi) 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 in Confucianism. It is an important concept in 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 can also generally denotes a state of spirit or state of mind, and in Confucianism, it accords with conventional morality.
| Wu wei | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 無為 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 无为 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese | vô vi | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Hangul | 무위 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 無爲 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 無為 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | むい | ||||||||||||||||||
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Sinologist Jean François Billeter describes wu-wei as a "state of perfect knowledge of the reality of the situation, perfect efficaciousness and the realization of a perfect economy of energy", which Oxford's Edward Slingerland qualifies in practice as a "set of ('transformed') dispositions (including physical bearing)... conforming with the normative order".
Wu Wei is the main principle of Dao philosophy, which speaks of the importance of achieving the Dao or the Natural Way in all actions and development of things. Without forcing or rushing against the natural order of things to avoid false development and mistakes. The philosophy of Dao, 'Dao Jia' and the religion of Dao, 'Dao Jiao' are two different things. For example, in the philosophy of Dao, 'Dao Jia' there is no mysticism and belief in ghosts and evil spirits. The founder of Dao philosophy, Lao Zi, successfully founded his philosophical school with the manuscript 'Dao De Jing', 'Treatise on Morals'. In addition, to achieve the state of Dao, the followers were required to perform certain physical exercises. Later, during the Warring States era, professional warriors used Wu Wei as the primary guide for their training and fighting methods and created Wu Wei Martial Arts. At that harsh time, among the best ancient martial arts schools, the Wu Wei school had an undeniable reputation. The core fighting skill of Wu Wei Martial Arts is the skill of the rolling power, 'Hun Yuan Gong'. According to ancient tradition, the name of that combat system was most often known as Wuweimen, 'Gates to Wu Wei'.